Wolf Vostell

Cardi Gallery is proud to present its first retrospective dedicated to the work of Wolf Vostell (Leverkusen, 1932 – Berlin, 1998). German by birth, the artist was deeply influenced by his native culture and several other historical European ones, particularly those of Spain and Italy. Shaping his practice through an honest, uncontaminated cultural fusion, they contributed to making him a key figure in the development of the artistic discourse across Europe over the second half of the Twentieth century.

One of the founders of Fluxus, Vostell, was an eclectic pioneer engaged with a variety of media. He was among the first artists to adopt video and installation as essential linguistic tools in his practice and the first to include a television within an artwork in 1958. Through a selection of videos, paintings, sculptures and installations spanning from 1967 to 1998, the exhibition Wolf Vostell | Destruction is Life takes the viewer on a journey unfolding over three floors of the Mayfair townhouse space, examining some of the many facets underpinning Vostell’s oeuvre, always with humanity at the centre.

Moving beyond the Fluxus attitude of considering life as a work of art, the artist asserted that “every man is a work of art” and how by discovering one’s inner life, one can be a work of art.