Partitur zum Happening "TV-Ochsen". 1970/1975.
Mixed media. Collage, watercolor, color pen and lower jaw bone of a cow. In object box.
Signed and dated lower right. On firm cardboard by Schöllershammer (with blindstamp). Object box: 89 x 107 x 6,8 cm (35 x 42,1 x 2,6 in).

We are grateful to Rafael Vostell, The Wolf Vostell Estate, Berlin, for his kind support in cataloging this lot.

PROVENANCE: Private collection Southern Germany.

Wolf Vostell, a pioneer of the Fluxus movement, fought for the equal treatment of art and public life. His graphic works, videos, environments and installations were always socio-politically motivated, just as it is the case with this work, which references the happening "TV-Ochsen" in context of the exhibition "happening und fluxus" in the Cologne Kunstverein in 1970/71. Vostell intended a pregnant cow to deliver a calf in the Kunsthalle. However, the animal was confiscated by the police and the cow delivered in the rural surroundings in the Eifel. The artist concluded the following: "A society that stinks cannot put up with a smelly exhibition " (transl. quote after Rolf Wedewer (publisher), Vostell, Bonn et al, p. 78). An inscription on the work states something similar: "The society of the 1970 sits in front of the TV and drinks champagne – watching war cruelties – bur it won’t tolerate the birth of a cow in the Kunsthalle in Cologne". [KH].