Wolf Vostell

Wolf Vostell (1932-1998), born in Leverkusen, Germany, lived and worked in Berlin and Malpartida de Cáceres, Spain. A pioneering figure of postwar European art and a founding member of Fluxus, he was an early practitioner of Happening, video and installation art. In the 1950s, he developed the concept of Dé-coll/age, using torn posters, fragments of mass media and everyday objects to disrupt familiar images and confront the realities of contemporary society.
Vostell was also a central figure of Kapitalistischer Realismus, which he developed in Düsseldorf in the early 1960s together with Gerhard Richter, Sigmar Polke, Konrad Lueg and Manfred Kuttner. Drawing on the visual language of consumer culture and mass media, the artists developed a critical response to the realities of postwar West Germany. Television, cars, advertising and other symbols of mass culture became recurring elements in Vostell’s work, often combined with themes of war, political violence and German history. His practice spans painting, sculpture, installation, performance, video and printmaking.