Page "Modernism" Paragraph 73

During the same period, various avant-garde artists created Happenings.

Happenings were mysterious and often spontaneous and unscripted gatherings of artists and their friends and relatives in various specified locations, often incorporating exercises in absurdity, physicality, costuming, spontaneous nudity, and various random or seemingly disconnected acts.

Notable creators of happenings included Allan Kaprow — who first used the term in 1958, Claes Oldenburg, Jim Dine, Red Grooms, and Robert Whitman.