Wolf Vostell
Encyclopedia
Noise music
Noise music is a term used to describe varieties of avant-garde music and sound art that may use elements such as cacophony, dissonance, atonality, noise, indeterminacy, and repetition in their realization. Noise music can feature distortion, various types of acoustically or electronically...
maker and Happening artist of the second half of the 20th century. Wolf Vostell is considered one of the pioneers of video art
Video art
Video art is a type of art which relies on moving pictures and comprises video and/or audio data. . Video art came into existence during the 1960s and 1970s, is still widely practiced and has given rise to the widespread use of video installations...
, environment
Natural environment
The natural environment encompasses all living and non-living things occurring naturally on Earth or some region thereof. It is an environment that encompasses the interaction of all living species....
-sculptures
Environmental sculpture
The term environmental sculpture is variously defined. A development of the art of the 20th century, environmental sculpture usually creates or alters the environment for the viewer, as opposed to presenting itself figurally or monumentally before the viewer...
, Happening
Happening
A happening is a performance, event or situation meant to be considered art, usually as performance art. Happenings take place anywhere , are often multi-disciplinary, with a nonlinear narrative and the active participation of the audience...
s and the Fluxus
Fluxus
Fluxus—a name taken from a Latin word meaning "to flow"—is an international network of artists, composers and designers noted for blending different artistic media and disciplines in the 1960s. They have been active in Neo-Dada noise music and visual art as well as literature, urban planning,...
Movement. Techniques such as blurring and the dé-collage are characteristic of his work, as is embedding objects in concrete.
Early life
Wolf Vostell was born in LeverkusenLeverkusen
Leverkusen is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany on the eastern bank of the Rhine. To the South, Leverkusen borders the city of Cologne and to the North is the state capital Düsseldorf....
, Germany, and put his artistic ideas into practice from 1950 onwards. In 1953 he began an apprenticeship as a lithographer and studied at the Academy of Applied Art in Wuppertal
Wuppertal
Wuppertal is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located in and around the Wupper river valley, and is situated east of the city of Düsseldorf and south of the Ruhr area. With a population of approximately 350,000, it is the largest city in the Bergisches Land...
. Vostell created his first dé-coll/age in 1954. In 1955/56 he studied at the École Nationale Superieur des Beaux Arts in Paris and in 1957 he attended the Düsseldorf Academy of Arts
Kunstakademie Düsseldorf
The Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, formerly Staatliche Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, is the Arts Academy of the city of Düsseldorf. It is well known for having produced many famous artists, such as Joseph Beuys, Gerhard Richter, Sigmar Polke, Thomas Demand, and Andreas Gursky...
.
Life and work
Vostell's philosophy was built around the idea that destruction is all around us and it runs through all of the twentieth century. He used the term dé-coll/age (in connection with a plane crash) to refer to the process of tearing down posters, and for the use of mobile fragments of reality. His first Happening, Theater is in the Street, took place in ParisParis
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
in 1958, and incorporated auto parts and a TV.
In 1958 he took part in the first European Happening in Paris and he produced his first objects with television sets and car parts. He was impressed by the work of Karlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. Another critic calls him "one of the great visionaries of 20th-century music"...
, which he encountered in 1964 in the electronic studios of the German radio station WDR, and in 1959 he created his electronic TV dé-coll/ages. It marked the beginning of his dedication to the Fluxus-Movement, which he co-founded in the 1960s.
At more or less the same time, he founded the Vostell Archive. With great fervour and strict consistency, Vostell collected photographs, artistic texts, private correspondence with colleagues such as Nam June Paik
Nam June Paik
Nam June Paik was a Korean American artist. He worked with a variety of media and is considered to be the first video artist....
, Joseph Beuys
Joseph Beuys
Joseph Beuys was a German performance artist, sculptor, installation artist, graphic artist, art theorist and pedagogue of art.His extensive work is grounded in concepts of humanism, social philosophy and anthroposophy; it culminates in his "extended definition of art" and the idea of social...
, Dick Higgins
Dick Higgins
Dick Higgins was a composer, poet, printer, and early Fluxus artist. Higgins was born in Cambridge, England, but raised in the United States in various parts of New England, including Worcester, Massachusetts, Putney, Vermont, and Concord, New Hampshire.Like other Fluxus artists, Higgins studied...
and many others, as well as press cuttings, invitations to exhibitions and events or books and catalogues which document Vostell's work and that of his contemporaries. In the early 1960s he was one of the activists involved in the Fluxus-Movement Happenings and in video art. In the 1960s and 1970s the Vostell Archive therefore became a comprehensive source of information for authors, publishers and exhibition organisers from around the world. Vostell’s passion for collecting did not diminish in the 1980s and 1990s, and since then his private library with more than 6,000 books has formed part of the Archive. Vostell’s extensive oeuvre is documented in photographic form and makes up an important part of the archive. About 25,000 documents from four decades make the Vostell Archive a treasure of art history. Since 2006 the archive has been housed in the Museo Vostell Malpartida and is available to art historians, journalists and authors.
Vostell was behind many Happening
Happening
A happening is a performance, event or situation meant to be considered art, usually as performance art. Happenings take place anywhere , are often multi-disciplinary, with a nonlinear narrative and the active participation of the audience...
s, in New York, Berlin, Cologne, Wuppertal and Ulm among others.In 1962 he participated in the planning of the Festum Fluxorum, an international event in Wiesbaden
Wiesbaden
Wiesbaden is a city in southwest Germany and the capital of the federal state of Hesse. It has about 275,400 inhabitants, plus approximately 10,000 United States citizens...
together with Nam June Paik
Nam June Paik
Nam June Paik was a Korean American artist. He worked with a variety of media and is considered to be the first video artist....
, and George Maciunas
George Maciunas
George Maciunas was a Lithuanian-born American artist. He was a founding member of Fluxus, an international community of artists, architects, composers, and designers...
. In 1963 Vostell became a pioneer of video art
Video art
Video art is a type of art which relies on moving pictures and comprises video and/or audio data. . Video art came into existence during the 1960s and 1970s, is still widely practiced and has given rise to the widespread use of video installations...
with his environment 6 TV dé-coll/age shown at the Smollin Gallery in New York, and now in the collection of the Museo Reina Sofía in Madrid. In 1967 his Happening Miss Vietnam dealt with the subject of the Vietnam war. In 1968 he founded Labor e.V., a group that was to investigate acoustic and visual events, together with Mauricio Kagel
Mauricio Kagel
Mauricio Kagel was a German-Argentine composer. He was notable for his interest in developing the theatrical side of musical performance .-Biography:...
, and others.
Wolf Vostell was the first artist in art history to integrate a television set into a work of art. This work of art was created in 1958 under the title Deutscher Ausblick ("German view") is now part of the collection of the art museum Berlinische Galerie
Berlinische Galerie
The Berlinische Galerie is a museum of modern art, photography and architecture in Berlin. It is located in Kreuzberg, on Alte Jakobstraße, not far from the Jewish Museum.-History:...
in Berlin. Early works with television sets are Transmigracion I-III from 1958 and Elektronischer De-coll/age Happeningraum, (E.D.H.R), ("electronic de-coll/age happening room"), an environmental sculpture
Environmental sculpture
The term environmental sculpture is variously defined. A development of the art of the 20th century, environmental sculpture usually creates or alters the environment for the viewer, as opposed to presenting itself figurally or monumentally before the viewer...
from 1969.
In 1974 his first major retrospective took place in the ARC 2 at the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, an expanded version of which was shown at the Neue Nationalgalerie
Neue Nationalgalerie
Neue Nationalgalerie at the Kulturforum is a museum for modern art in Berlin, with its main focus on the early 20th century. It is part of the Nationalgalerie of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin...
, in 1975.
In 1992 the town of Cologne honoured Wolf Vostell with a major retrospective of his work. His pieces were distributed over 6 exhibition venues: Stadtmuseum Köln, Kunsthalle Köln, Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn
Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn
The Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn, or LVR-LandesMuseum Bonn, is a museum in Bonn, Germany, run by the Rhineland Landscape Association. It is one of the oldest museums in the country. In 2003 it completed an extensive renovation...
, Kunsthalle Mannheim
Kunsthalle Mannheim
The Kunsthalle Mannheim is a museum of modern and contemporary art, established in 1909 and located in Mannheim, Germany. The building designed by Hermann Billing was erected as a temporary structure to serve an "International Art Exhibition" of 1907, commemorating the 300th anniversary of the...
, Schloss Morsbroich Leverkusen and Städtisches Museum Mülheim/Ruhr. Under the artistic direction of David Vostell
David Vostell
David Vostell is a German-Spanish composer and film director.-Biography:David Vostell is the first child of Wolf Vostell and his Spanish wife Mercedes Guardado. His father and his father’s art...
, the documentary VOSTELL 60-RÜCKBLICK 92("VOSTELL 60-REVIEW 92") was created.
Legacy
Vostell died in BerlinBerlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
.
Vostell’s sculptures made from cars and concrete are to be found in Cologne Ruhender Verkehr ("Stationary traffic") from 1969, in Berlin Beton Cadillacs("Concrete Cadillacs") as well as VOAEX (Viaje de Hormigón por la Alta Extremadura) in the Museo Vostell Malpartida at Malpartida, Spain.
Vostell gained fame as well with his drawings and objects, such as images of American B-52 bombers, published under the rubric "capitalist realism
Capitalist realism
Capitalist realism was a German art movement of the early 1960s.The phrase first appeared in the title of the 1963 art exhibition in Düsseldorf, Demonstration for Capitalist Realism, featuring the work of Gerhard Richter, Sigmar Polke, Wolf Vostell and Konrad Lueg.Capitalist realism can also be...
" or by including television sets with his paintings. Nam June Paik
Nam June Paik
Nam June Paik was a Korean American artist. He worked with a variety of media and is considered to be the first video artist....
and Vostell were two figures of the Fluxus
Fluxus
Fluxus—a name taken from a Latin word meaning "to flow"—is an international network of artists, composers and designers noted for blending different artistic media and disciplines in the 1960s. They have been active in Neo-Dada noise music and visual art as well as literature, urban planning,...
Movement and both developed a great fetishism for television and the culture of consumption.
The catalogue raisonné of his screen prints and posters has been published in the Nouvelles de l'estampe
Nouvelles de l'estampe
Nouvelles de l'estampe is a scholarly journal on prints from the origin to nowadays...
by Françoise Woimant and Anne Moeglin-Delcroix in 1982.
Works
- „Deutscher Ausblick“ 1958 Berlinische Galerie BerlinBerlinBerlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
- „6 TV De-coll/age“ 1963 Museo Reina Sofía MadridMadridMadrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
- „YOU“ 1964
- „HOURS OF FUN“ 1968 Berlinische Galerie Berlin
- „Ruhender Verkehr“ 1969 KölnKOLNKOLN, digital channel 10, is the CBS affiliate in Lincoln, Nebraska. It operates a satellite station, KGIN, on digital channel 11 in Grand Island. KGIN repeats all KOLN programming, but airs separate commercials...
- „Coca-Cola“ 1969 De-coll/age Museum LudwigMuseum LudwigMuseum Ludwig, located in Cologne, Germany, houses a collection of modern art. It includes works from PopArt, Abstract and Surrealism, and has one of the largest Picasso collections in Europe. It also features many works by Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein....
Köln - „Miss Amerika“ 1968, „Coca-Cola“ 1969 Dé-coll/age Museum LudwigMuseum LudwigMuseum Ludwig, located in Cologne, Germany, houses a collection of modern art. It includes works from PopArt, Abstract and Surrealism, and has one of the largest Picasso collections in Europe. It also features many works by Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein....
Köln - „Heuschrecken“ 1971 Museum Ludwig Wien
- „Elektronischer De-coll/age Happening Raum“ 1969 Neue NationalgalerieNeue NationalgalerieNeue Nationalgalerie at the Kulturforum is a museum for modern art in Berlin, with its main focus on the early 20th century. It is part of the Nationalgalerie of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin...
Berlin - „Beton Cadillacs“ 1987 Rathenauplatz BerlinBerlinBerlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
- „Auto-Fieber“ 1973 Environment Museo Vostell Malpartida
- „Mythos-Berlin“ 1987 Museo Vostell Malpartida
- „Der Fall der Berliner Mauer“ 1989
- „La Siberie d'Estremadure (III)“ 1961 Stedelijk Museum Actuele Kunst, Gent, België
See also
- Anti-artAnti-artAnti-art is a loosely-used term applied to an array of concepts and attitudes that reject prior definitions of art and question art in general. Anti-art tends to conduct this questioning and rejection from the vantage point of art...
- FluxusFluxusFluxus—a name taken from a Latin word meaning "to flow"—is an international network of artists, composers and designers noted for blending different artistic media and disciplines in the 1960s. They have been active in Neo-Dada noise music and visual art as well as literature, urban planning,...
- Gutai groupGutai groupThe Gutai group was an artistic movement and association of artists founded by Jiro Yoshihara in Japan in 1954...
- Art interventionArt interventionArt intervention is an interaction with a previously existing artwork, audience or venue/space. It has the auspice of conceptual art and is commonly a form of performance art. It is associated with the Viennese Actionists, the Dada movement and Neo-Dadaists...
- HappeningHappeningA happening is a performance, event or situation meant to be considered art, usually as performance art. Happenings take place anywhere , are often multi-disciplinary, with a nonlinear narrative and the active participation of the audience...
- Pop artPop artPop art is an art movement that emerged in the mid 1950s in Britain and in the late 1950s in the United States. Pop art challenged tradition by asserting that an artist's use of the mass-produced visual commodities of popular culture is contiguous with the perspective of fine art...
- Neo-DadaNeo-DadaNeo-Dada is a label applied primarily to audio and visual art that has similarities in method or intent to earlier Dada artwork. It is the foundation of Fluxus, Pop Art and Nouveau réalisme. Neo-Dada is exemplified by its use of modern materials, popular imagery, and absurdist contrast...
- Performance artPerformance artIn art, performance art is a performance presented to an audience, traditionally interdisciplinary. Performance may be either scripted or unscripted, random or carefully orchestrated; spontaneous or otherwise carefully planned with or without audience participation. The performance can be live or...
- Noise musicNoise musicNoise music is a term used to describe varieties of avant-garde music and sound art that may use elements such as cacophony, dissonance, atonality, noise, indeterminacy, and repetition in their realization. Noise music can feature distortion, various types of acoustically or electronically...
External links
- The Vostell Museum in Malpartida de Cáceres, Spain
- ArtNet Profile, Focus on paintings
- List of works
- Fluxus on IFA
- http://www.ubu.com/sound/vostell.html Wolf Vostel's De/Collage LP FluxusFluxusFluxus—a name taken from a Latin word meaning "to flow"—is an international network of artists, composers and designers noted for blending different artistic media and disciplines in the 1960s. They have been active in Neo-Dada noise music and visual art as well as literature, urban planning,...
Multhipla, Italy (1980) at UbuWebUbuWebUbuWeb is a large web-based educational resource for avant-garde material available on the internet, founded in 1996 by poet Kenneth Goldsmith. It offers visual, concrete and sound poetry, expanding to include film and sound art mp3 archives.-Philosophy:... - http://ubu.artmob.ca/sound/fluxus_anthology/Fluxus-Anthology_05_Wolf-Vostell.mp3 Wolf Vostell, “Elektronischer de-coll.age. Happening raum,” 1968 (3:00) at UbuWebUbuWebUbuWeb is a large web-based educational resource for avant-garde material available on the internet, founded in 1996 by poet Kenneth Goldsmith. It offers visual, concrete and sound poetry, expanding to include film and sound art mp3 archives.-Philosophy:...