Skeleton, from the portfolio "dé-coll/age/5, happenings pieces musical scores" 1966

Curator: Here we have Wolf Vostell's "Skeleton," from the portfolio "dé-coll/age/5, happenings pieces musical scores," residing here at the Harvard Art Museums. Editor: The aged, almost sepia tone gives it a haunted, ghostly feel. The texture seems…delicate. Curator: Vostell was a master of décollage. Note how he layered text and image, a process of tearing and fragmenting to reveal hidden elements. Editor: Décollage is such an apt technique considering the social and political upheaval of the time. The very act of destruction, of tearing apart, speaks to a broader cultural dismantling. It's about labor and decay. Curator: Indeed, the composition, with its seemingly random placement of textual fragments, defies conventional notions of artistic structure. Editor: And the materiality itself—this isn't some pristine canvas. It's raw, almost distressed. It feels like a document pulled from the ruins of history. Curator: A poignant reflection on ephemerality and the human condition, wouldn't you agree? Editor: Precisely, it reminds us how art can be both a product of and a commentary on the times.