A happening is a performance, event or situation meant to be considered art, usually as performance art. Happenings occur anywhere and are often multi-disciplinary, with a nonlinear narrative and the active participation of the audience. Key elements of happenings are planned but artists sometimes retain room for improvisation. This new media art aspect to happenings eliminates the boundary between the artwork and its viewer.

In the late 1960s, perhaps due to the depiction in films of hippie culture, the term was used much less specifically to mean any gathering of interest from a pool hall meetup or a jamming of a few young people to a beer blast or fancy formal party.

History

Origins

Allan Kaprow first coined the term "happening" in the spring of 1957 at an art picnic at George Segal's farm to describe the art pieces that were going on. The first appearance in print was in Kaprow's famous "Legacy of Jackson Pollock" essay that was published in 1958 but primarily written in 1956. "Happening" also appeared in print in one issue of the Rutgers University undergraduate literary magazine, Anthologist. The form was imitated and the term was adopted by artists across the U.S., Germany, and Japan. Jack Kerouac referred to Kaprow as "The Happenings man", and an ad showing a woman floating in outer space declared, "I dreamt I was in a happening in my Maidenform brassiere".

Happenings is an album by American jazz pianist Hank Jones and composer/arranger Oliver Nelson featuring performances recorded in 1966 for the Impulse! label.

Reception

The Allmusic review by Ken Dryden awarded the album 2 stars stating "the forgettable sound of the electric harpsichord (an instrument that thankfully didn't catch on, contrary to liner note writer Stanley Dance's prediction that it was here to stay along with earlier electronic instruments) keeps this release from achieving the heights it would have if Jones had only stuck to the piano throughout the sessions. This disc will be sought only by those fans who must have everything Hank Jones has recorded".

Track listing

A happening is a performance, event or situation meant to be considered art.

Happening, Happenings, or The Happening may also refer to: