Al Hansen (1927 - 1995) - Gold Venus

Al Hansen (1927 - 1995), Gold Venus, 1991.

Collage. Gold foil on black cardboard. 35 x 24.8 cm, signed and dated in pencil on the right. Verso with four pieces of double‑sided tape.

Provenance: Private collection, Berlin.

Condition: Very good condition. Minor abrasion on the cardboard. Images are part of the condition description.

The collage “Gold Venus” was created in 1991 as part of the rare Art Matrix edition and belongs to Al Hansen's famous Venus cycle, a central body of work of his Fluxus late period. With his compositions of gold paper, found materials and collage elements depicting Venus, Hansen linked the iconography of the prehistoric Venus of Willendorf with the experimental visual language of the Fluxus movement and created some of his most sought-after works of the 1990s.

Al Hansen (1927–1995) was an American Fluxus artist, a pioneer of happenings and one of the most influential representatives of the international avant-garde of the 20th century. As a pupil of composer John Cage, since the 1950s Hansen developed an interdisciplinary body of work consisting of collages, assemblages, performances, experimental films and artist’s books, deliberately dissolving the boundaries between art and everyday life. He gained international renown especially with his multi-layered Venus collages, in which he combined the motif of the Venus of Willendorf with found materials, gold foil and elements of pop culture. His works have been exhibited worldwide and are today in renowned public and private collections. Al Hansen is regarded as one of the defining protagonists of the Fluxus movement and an important precursor of contemporary conceptual and performance art.