Allan Kaprow—Art as Life
Getty Publications, Los Angeles, California, 2008
Description
Allan Kaprow—Art as Life is organized into six essays and a chronology spanning five decades of Kaprow’s life and work. Given the vast amount of material, including photographs, letters, posters, newspaper clippings and scores, the challenge was to develop a framework that would allow the many underlying grids to disappear, echo, reprise and reappear in unexpected places. As the process took hold, the book designed itself; the more information received, the more insight gained. The ordinariness of everyday life drove Kaprow’s work, as did the desire to open participants to a spirited experience as projects were conceived, understood and realized. The hope for this book was to follow that adventure—a happening or activity—from cover to cover. Exploring Kaprow is like going to see a good movie: you walk in feeling one way and walk out feeling another.
Juror Notes
An excellent design treatment to an artist monograph on a self-described “un-artist.”
The array of materials—letters, photographs, art works, ephemera—are all presented in an engaging way.
The minimal, almost textbook-like cover treatment is enhanced by the taped-on note reading Art as Life.
Credits
- Design firm
- Getty Publications
- Designer
- Meryl Pollen
- Production coordinator
- Suzanne Watson
- Authors
- Eva Meyer-Hermann, Andrew Perchuk, Stephanie Rosenthal
- Editor
- Tobi Kaplane
- Publisher
- Getty Publications
- Trim size
- 9.5 x 9.5
- Pages
- 276
- Quantity printed
- 2,570
- Compositor
- Meryl Pollen
- Typeface
- Helvetica Neue
- Printer
- Asia Pacific Offset Inc.
- Papers
- Gold East, 140 gsm, matte (text); Fancy woodfree, star white (cover)
- Binder
- Asia Pacific Offset Inc.