Joan M. Marter

Simon Anderson

Newark Museum

Off Limits is the first examination of the Rutgers group, artists who came together on the Rutgers University, New Brunswick campus during the 1950s and revolutionized art practices and pedagogy. Based on interviews with artists, critics, and dealers from the period, the book connects the initiation of major trends such as Happenings, Pop Art, and Fluxus to the faculty, students, art curriculum, and events at the university. It is the first book to look not only at the work of individual artists, but to consider how interactions between these artists influenced their groundbreaking work. Rutgers was clearly the place to be for experimental artists during the late 1950s and early 1960s. Allan Kaprow's first Happening was presented at Rutgers. Roy Lichtenstein's first Pop paintings, George Segal's earliest figurative tableaux, Lucas Samaras's radical exploration of media, and proto-Fluxus events by Robert Watts and George Brecht all took place on and around the campus. The innovative group rejected Abstract Expressionism for art based on the immediate experience of urban and industrial life, creating startling new artforms which remain startling and provocative. Led by the theoretical writings and art practice of Kaprow, the group created a New Art—art beyond the limits of the conventional and predictable, even beyond accepted notions of progressive trends. Lichtenstein recalls in an interview, “Kaprow showed us that art didn't have to look like art.” Along with Lichtenstein, Kaprow, Segal, and Watts taught at Rutgers and challenged one another to take art “Off Limits” — beyond the limits of the conventional, the predictable — even beyond the progressive, as defined by Abstract Expressionist gesturalism. Their art incorporated the gritty environs, the technological, the everyday, making art radical, outrageous, disturbing, and humorous.

Rutgers University and the Avant-garde, 1957-1963

Off Limits

Jamie Berger

Tom Adams

Richard H. Turner

With great recipes for meats, sauces and rubs mixed with ideas for pickles, slaws, puddings and cocktails, plus features on meats, equipment and methods, the Pitt Cue Co. Cookbook is your guide to enjoying the best hot, smoky, sticky, spicy grub all year round. From Pitt Cue's legendary Pickle backs and bourbon cocktails, to their acclaimed Pulled pork shoulder; Burnt ends mash; Smoked ox cheek toasts with pickled walnuts; Lamb rib with molasses mop and onion salad; Chipotle & confit garlic slaw; Crispy pickled shiitake mushrooms; Toffee apple grunt; Sticky bourbon & cola pudding and so much more, it's all irresistibly delicious food to savour and share.

Pitt Cue Co. - The Cookbook

Douglas Kahn

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

Whitney Museum of American Art

Andreas Huyssen

Elizabeth Armstrong

Owen F. Smith

Museum of Contemporary Art (Chicago, Ill.)

Walker Art Center

Kristine Stiles

Bruce Jenkins

Wexner Center for the Arts (Columbus, Ohio)

Fundació Antoni Tàpies (Barcelona)

Published on the Occasion of the Exhibition ...

In the Spirit of Fluxus

By constantly challenging one another to take art "Off Limits," George Brecht, Geoffrey Hendricks, Allan Kaprow, Roy Lichtenstein, Lucas Samaras, George Segal, Robert Watts, and Robert Whitman defied the art world, bringing Abstract Expressionism to a screeching halt and setting the stage for the art of the rest of the century. Off Limits accompanies a major exhibition of the same title at The Newark Museum, February 18 - May 16, 1999.

Simon Anderson

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