Tree, A Happening (Original instructions for the May 19, 1963 Yam Festival event, with contemporary Kaprow signature and date)

N.p.: N.p., 1963. Original spirit duplication instructions for Allan Kaprow's "Tree, A Happening," a performance art piece which took place as part of The Yam Festival, at painter and sculptor George Segal's farm in South Brunswick, New Jersey, on May 19, 1963, with Kaprow's contemporary signature, "Kaprow May '63" in manuscript ink on top of first page. The instructions are three pages on two leaves, with text on recto of first page and recto and verso of second page.

A forerunner of Fluxus, performance art, and installation art, Allan Kaprow's "Happenings" and "Activities" of the 1950s and 1960s heralded a new gallery-less approach to an art which could not be bought, and in Kaprow's own words "The line between art and life should be kept as fluid, and perhaps indistinct, as possible."

The Yam Festival included actions and happenings by artists and musicians including Dick Higgins, La Monte Young, John Cage, Alison Knowles, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and Wolf Vostell.

8.5 x 14 inches, bound with a single staple to top left. Very Good plus, with three horizontal creases, some light creasing, edgewear, and soiling, a small strip of discoloration below center fold and three small silverfish holes to right margin of both pages.

Full provenance available.