Wolf Vostell
TV-Ochsen 2

Screen prints by Wolf Vostell in the portfolio Weekend:

TV-Ochsen 2
1971
3-color screen print on Bristol cardboard
48 × 62 cm
Edition of 95, signed and numbered
7 proofs, signed

Neujahrsansprache 1
1971
4-color screen print with glitter on Bristol board
48 × 62 cm
Edition of 95, signed and numbered
7 proofs, signed

Neujahrsansprache 2
1971
4-color screen print with glitter on Bristol board
48 × 62 cm
Edition of 95, signed and numbered
7 proofs, signed

For the exhibition Happening & Fluxus (1970) at the Kölnischer Kunstverein, Wolf Vostell conceived the environment TV-Ochsen (TV oxen), in which a pregnant cow was to calve in the exhibition rooms. However, the action was aborted prematurely by the Cologne authorities. The screen print TV-Ochsen 2, which together with Neujahrsansprache I (New Year’s Speech I) and Neujahrsansprache II (New Year’s Speech II) is Vostell’s contribution to the edition Weekend (EB32), is based on a photograph of the removal of the confiscated cow. Above it is a letter of complaint from a Cologne citizen printed in silver and addressed to the chairman of the Kölnischer Kunstverein and all the other people responsible for the exhibition. Vostell refers to this incident in several prints, for example in the screen print TV-Ochsen 1 (1971) published by Galerie Kuhn in Aachen, which reads: “DIE GESELLSCHAFT VON 1970 SITZT SEKTTRINKEND AM FERNSEHGERÄT SIEHT KRIEGSGREUEL, – TOLERIERT ABER NOT DIE GEBURT EINES KALBES IN DER KUNSTHALLE (“THE SOCIETY OF 1970 SITS IN FRONT OF THE TELEVISION DRINKIN SPARKLING WINE AND WATCHING ATROCITIES OF THE WAR, – BUT DOES NOT TOLERATE THE BIRTH OF A CALF IN THE KUNSTHALLE!”)!”¹

The screen print Neujahrsansprache I (New Year’s Speech I) was created after a color photograph by Vostell, which shows the television image disturbed by Vostell during the New Year’s speech of German President Gustav Heinemann in 1971. It was printed in the four colors light blue, blue, red and black on Bristol board and additionally accentuated with glitter in some places by Vostell.

Like Neujahrsansprache I, the screen print Neujahrsansprache II shows the disturbed television image recorded by Vostell during the New Year’s address by Federal President Gustav Heinemann in 1971, whereby Neujahrsansprache II shows a stronger disturbance, so that the Federal President is no longer recognizable. As part of the edition Weekend (EB32), the sheet was printed in an edition of 95 copies and seven proofs. In addition to the four colors light blue, blue, red and black, glitter is also used in the printing process. All sheets are signed and numbered.
Text: Katrin Seemann

¹ Fig. in: René Block, Grafik des Kapitalistischen Realismus, Berlin: Edition René Block, 1971/1976, p. 182.