Wolf Vostell

WOLF VOSTELL (Leverkusen, Germany 1932 - Berlin, 1998).
Untitled, 1989.
Mixed media on paper.
Signed and dated in the lower left corner.
Measurements: 33 x 25 cm; 50 x 43 cm (frame).
The work that concerns us continues the stylistic guidelines that made Wolf Vostell an important figure in the artistic panorama of the 20th century. A continuator of movements such as fluxus, which became a direct, immediate and urgent reference to everyday reality, Vostell's proposals confront the anesthesia and indifference of society and generate an emotional and intellectual discourse on many issues of the international cultural and political scene of the time. Thus, his work directly criticizes the political system, the disasters of war, consumerism or the influence of the media.
Wolf Vostel began his training in Cologne, where he studied painting, photography and lithography, and then entered the Wuppertal academy of free painting and experimental typography. In 1955 he moved to Paris to study painting and printmaking at the Ecole Supérieure Nationale des Beaux-Arts. Subsequently, he continued his training at the Academy of Arts in Düsseldorf. Vostell coined the term "dé-coll/age" for his particular and creative juxtaposition of elements, which he applied both to his works, which included shreds of posters, smudged photographs and objects, and to his actions, the first of which would take place in 1954 in Wuppertal. Since the 1950s, Wolf Vostell has reflected politics and the disastrous consequences of wars in his works. In 1958, he created the installation The Black Room, which reflects the Holocaust. With Miss Vietnam, an embroidery and a happening with the same title, he shows the hell of the Vietnam War in 1968. The assassination of John F. Kennedy and many other political events are reflected in Wolf Vostell's works. In an extensive cycle of works, the artist documents the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. The triptych November 9, 1989 and the cycle The Fall of the Berlin Wall are two examples of this cycle.marks his work the aesthetics of destruction, the result of his experience in contact with war, a language with which he intended to reflect the aggressive and negative character of the contemporary world. His work continues to evolve: a pioneer of video art, in the seventies he incorporated concrete as a key element in his work. His work is present in the museum that bears his name in the province of Cáceres, the Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía and in other collections, both public and private. In 1992 the city of Cologne received a large retrospective of Wolf Vostell's work, which is distributed in 6 different museums in the region.