Artist: Allan Kaprow

https://www.guggenheim.org/blogs/findings/how-allan-kaprow-helped-create-happenings

I have been thinking about this word ‘assemblage‘ and ended up talking about it with friends. I was directed towards Kaprow who used the word and titled a book with it – but relied on the French accent – I have a feeling it wasn’t really used in English at that time (50s) although I can’t pinpoint why I would think such a thing and may just be making it up.

Search for etymology brings up the following:

1704, “a collection of individuals,” from French assemblage “gathering, assemblage,” from assembler (see assemble). Earlier English words in the same sense include assemblement, assemblance (both late 15c.). Meaning “act of coming together” is from 1730; that of “act of fitting parts together” is from 1727.

https://www.etymonline.com/word/assemblage

It is used extensively in the blog and book I mentioned yesterday by Deborah Lupton – Data Selves: More than Human (2019) – due out tomorrow.

From the Guggenheim website:

“One of the movement’s major texts, Assemblage, environments & happenings is in the special collections. It features Kaprow’s theory of the evolution of abstract expressionist painting into Neo-Dada, assemblage, environments, and happenings of the early 1960s. This rare book documents works by Kaprow and artists including Robert Rauschenberg, Red Grooms, Robert Whitman, Jackson Pollock, Jim Dine, Yayoi Kusama, Claes Oldenburg, George Segal, Jean Tinguely, and the Gutai group.”

https://www.guggenheim.org/blogs/findings/how-allan-kaprow-helped-create-happenings

I hope I can see a copy of the book as it may prove useful for both BOW and CS research.

I may add to this post as my investigations continue.