Television-Art or anti-art?
Conflict and cooperation between the avant-garde and the mass media in the 1960s and 1970s
Dieter Daniels

Television emerged and developed along tracks that had already been laid by the established mass media of film and radio. There was scarcely a phase when everything was open, allowing creative investigation to define the medium. In the following, three snapshots will provide examples of the developing relationship between art and television over three decades. The conflicts between avant-garde and television as a mass medium in the 1960s and 1970s will be highlighted from an artistic perspective. [more]

Television as a world power A medium without art Three time-windows I → First Time-Window: 1962–1964—Fighting the boob tube The television set as art material From Cage to Paik and from music to interactive art Paik's «Participation TV» Vostell's TV Decollage Paik or Vostell? Parallel concepts—the television set as an art object in the work of Wesselmann, Uecker, César, Isou and Gerstner Tom Wesselmann Günther Uecker César Isidore Isou Karl Gerstner TV interiors in painting, photography, action art and theater Summary of the first time-window—from intermedia to multimedia II → Second Time-Window 1968–1969: Artists go on the air Television—the art form of the future? «Black Gate Cologne»—a happening in the studio «The Medium is the Medium»—everything is possible Schum's «Fernsehgalerie«—art without a place III → Third Time-Window—Intervention and cooperation since 1970 Conceptual intervention Playful disturbances—Dibbets, Weibel, Export and Hall Radical intervention—Burden Radical cooperations—Paik VT ≠ TV Prospects: Four post-utopian strategies