Overview

Early in 1962, Claes Oldenburg offered a remarkable series of ten "Happenings" in a store on East Second Street in New York City. The audiences were kept small to heighten the intimacy of the experience. What is a "Happening"? It would seem impossible to describe afterwards. Yet Raymond Saroff compressed the rich and sprawling imagery of each evening-length work to the essential matter in hand... – Howard Rose (1962).