What is Kaprow’s main
argument?
Kaprow’s main argument is that art does not always have
to suggestive of art or perceived as art. He also believes that art can come
from anything even daily activities that most people don’t usually pay much
attention to. Although he believes that anything can be art, Kaprow does not
think that non-art objects or activities can always be set in the context of
art because he believes that this kind of art is unproductive. He believes that
by observing everyday actives like brushing his teeth he is able to examine
himself through activities that he believes are completely routinized and that
by doing this he is able to learn more about his own identity and society. He
believes that paying attention to every day activities is art because art
during the time that this was written was developing in a way that art was no
longer about objects seen in an art gallery but about what he refers to as the
real urban environment.
How does the reading relate
to the theme of the class/how might it help you make art?
The reading relates to the class because much of this
class seems to be about time based art or movement-based art. In this article
Kaprow talks much about observing routinized activities and this is very much
time based because people do activities such as brushing teeth at scheduled
periods each day. Also he talks about observing these activities, which involve
a certain amount of time and also involve movement. Also this article may help a
person make art because I believe that he is telling the reader that they
should pay more attention to their daily activities because it may make them
learn more about themselves and therefore have an impact on their artwork.
Do any verbs or actions stick
out to you in this reading?
I think that some of the
verbs and actions that stood out to me were all of the highly descriptive
actions that he mentions in the paragraph were he describes brushing his teeth and
looking at his face in the mirror such words used include avoid, washed and
smoothed. I believe this paragraph was important because it provided an example
of exactly how much attention to detail he was noticing in his daily routine as
well as how much analysis he was putting into examining these actions. Other
action words that I believe were important in this reading include perceived
and routinized.
