Wolf Vostell

Wolf Vostell (1932-1998) was a German painter, sculptor and happening artist, who was one of the leading representatives of the Fluxus movement. In his multimedia artistic practice, that is characterised by the principle of dé-coll/age and also includes video works, drawings and sculptures as well as happenings, Vostell critically examined the consumer and industrial society and also the new media of the 20th century.

His works were shown at documenta VI in Kassel, the Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art, the Venice Biennale, the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the Sao Paulo Biennial and presented in international retrospectives at institutions including the Kunstgalerie Gera, the Kölnischer Kunstverein, the Musée d’art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin, the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo in Madrid and Kunstverein Braunschweig. Vostell’s life work was recognised by the Berliner Culture Senator and the Berlinische Galerie with the award of the Hannah Höch Prize. The German artist died in Berlin in 1998.