Ohff (Heinz) Collection of Wolf Vostell Papers, circa 1962-2007

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Summary

Title:

Heinz Ohff collection of Wolf Vostell papers

Dates:

circa 1962-2007

Creators:

Ohff, Heinz

Abstract:

The Wolf Vostell papers, collected by the German art critic and friend of the artist, Heinz Ohff, document the activities of one of Europe's pioneers in video art, Happenings, and Fluxus. The bulk of the material dates from the 1970s and the early 1980s.

Extent:

8.0 linear feet (4 boxes, 4 flatfile folders)

Language:

Collection material is in German

Preferred citation:

Heinz Ohff collection of Wolf Vostell papers, circa 1962-2007, Getty Research Institute, Research Library, Accession no. 2009.M.24

http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa2009m24

Background

Scope and content:

Collected by Wolf Vostell's friend, the German art critic Heinz Ohff, the Wolf Vostell papers document the activities of one of Europe's pioneers in video art, Happenings, and Fluxus. The bulk of the material dates from the 1970s and the early 1980s, a prolific period in Vostell's career. Including correspondence, signed drawings and notes, press clippings, invitations to Happenings and exhibitions, posters, and other printed ephemera, the collection provides a broad, if selective, overview of Vostell's career and art. Many of the items are signed, dedicated, initialed, stamped and/or hand-written by Vostell, often in the form of correspondence to Ohff. Particluarly well documented are several of Vostell's Happenings, his first retrospective exhibition in Paris in 1974, the mobile museum Fluxus Zug (Fluxus Train), the Vostell Environment Museum, the Vostell Archive in Berlin, and his work for the Museo Vostell de Malpartida de Cáceres in Spain. Also included are ephemera from Happenings and dé-coll/age projects, including an empty Joya de Nicaragua cigar box inscribed by Vostell.

Arrangement

Organized in three series: I. Happenings, 1962-1975; II. Exhibitions ephemera, 1970-1983,undated; III. Various papers, 1971-2007, undated.

Biographical / historical:

Born in Leverkusen, Germany in 1932, Wolf Vostell was a pioneer of video art, and the Fluxus and Happening movements. While studying graphic arts at the École nationale des beaux-arts in Paris, Vostell developed the concept of dé-coll/age, or the process of artistic creation through the destruction of everyday materials. In Paris in 1958 he staged his first Happening, Theatre is in the Street. Four years later he joined with George Maciunas and Nam June Paik to coordinate the First International Fluxus Festival at Museum Wiesbaden in Germany. Vostell was among the first artists to incorporate television into his work, which he did as early as 1958. Vostell had close ties to Spain, the birthplace of his wife, where he founded the Museo Vostell Malpartida de Cáceres in 1976. The first retrospective exhibition of Vostell's work took place in 1974 at Musée d'art moderne de la ville de Paris. He died in Berlin in 1998.

Heinz Ohff was a friend of Wolf Volstell, as well as an art critic and editor at the Berlin Tagespiegel from 1961 until 1987. He also served as president of the German chapter of International Association of Art Critics (AICA).

Acquisition information:

Acquired in 2009.

Processing information:

In 2009 the collection was evaluated by John Tain and rehoused by Vladimira Stefura. In 2010 Alexis Adkins processed the collection and wrote the finding aid; Isabella Zuralski supervised and edited the work.

Physical location:

Request access to the physical materials described in this inventory through the catalog record for this collection. Click here for the access policy.

Rules or conventions:

Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Indexed terms

Subjects:: Art critics--Germany--Correspondence
Artists--Germany--Correspondence
Fluxus (Group of artists)
Happening (Art)
Video art--Germany--20th century
Drawings--Germany--20th century
Posters--Germany--20th century
Printed ephemera--Germany--20th century

About this collection guide

Collection Guide Author:: Finding aid prepared by Alexis Adkins
Date Encoded:: This finding aid was produced using the Archivists' Toolkit 2015-11-19T16:11-0800

Access and use

Restrictions:: Open for use by qualified researchers.
Terms of access:: Contact Library Rights and Reproductions.