Joseph Beuys – German Conceptual Artist (1921 – 1986) | New Media Design

Offset poster for US lecture-series Energy Plan for the Western Man (1974) by Joseph Beuys, organised by Ronald Feldman Gallery, New York
Courtesy Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, New York

I still remember the confusion, even outrage, when Joseph Beuys’ art was discussed in the 70ies and 80ies and when I visited my sister last month we found out that some of his work and video recordings of his lectures are exhibited in a beautiful water castle nearby.

Museum Schloss Moyland is one of the many water castles that dot the rural landscape in Northern Germany close to the Dutch border and it is worth a visit just to see the amazing spiral staircases and arched ceilings. The castle survived the second World War but was ravaged when it became a head quarter for the Allied Forces. It needed extensive renovations and the museum Foundation now possesses about 6,000 works by Joseph Beuys and houses great exhibitions of other artists as well as a printing studio upstairs.

Beuys was born in Krefeld in Northern Germany, he went to war and returned in 1945 after a short time as a Prisoner of War. He studied sculpture at the Duesseldorf Academy of Art but his work includes drawings, paintings, intallations and performances which he called “Aktion” (Action).

The general public knows of Beuys because of his incorporation of felt and animal fat, earth, honey, blood and even dead animals in his work. Beuys was provocative and challenged boundaries and therefore his work was, and still is, very controversial and creates fierce public debate.

Personally, I admire Beuys for his non-conformist attitude towards art and his political activism challenging the establishment, the established art world in particular, and redefining what art is. His vision was to incorporate art or creativity into all aspects of daily life which would ultimately change thinking and the way in which ideas are developed even in an industrial production environment. Beuys developed the concept Kunst = Kapital – creativity is the new word for capital, or driver for success, also in the sense of productivity – the creativity of humans is the real capital.

Beuys thought that every human is a potential artist and in 1972, during his teaching time at the Duesseldorf Academy of Art, he insisted that everybody interested in studying be admitted. As a result he was dismissed from his position and established together with other intellectuals the “Free International University”. Other activist groups he helped founding were the “German Student Party” (1967), the “Organization for Direct Democracy by Referendum” (1970) and the “Green Party” (1979).

Beuys was also an early associate of the “Fluxus” movement, a network of international artists that developed a concept called “anti-art” which questions the foundations and seriousness of modern art. The word Fluxus is derived from Latin and means flowing or fluid. Other well known members were John Cage, Yoko Ono and Nam June Paik.

One of the most well known “Aktion” (Action) is his performance “How to explain Pictures to a Dead Hare” in 1965. Beuys, his head covered in honey and gold leaf, was walking through a gallery carrying a dead hare to which he explained the pictures.

Beuys Exhibition in the Museum Schloss Moyland

Another famous object was “Badewanne“, the Bathtub (see p299). “Was”, because the tub with felt, grease and bandages had been pulled out of a room where it was stored for an upcoming exhibition and cleaned spotlessly by two unsuspecting women to be used to hold beer bottles and glasses at a political party gathering. When the art collector owner received his valuable object back, he could’t believe is eyes and apparently compared it to a shaved cactus. A real scandal! The media and the entire country became instant art experts discussing whether this bath tub (and Beuys’ work in general) was art, particularly as the city council, the operator of the museum, was sued for a large amount of money. The myth goes that only the sign “Joseph Beuys was bathed in this tub” survived to which somebody added in handwriting “Apparently too hot”, which shows very well the controversy and the sentiments of the time.

I would have loved to add images of some works I remember from when I was a teenager but Beuys only died in 1986 so the copyright is still fiercely enforced by anybody who has any kind of little snippets of his work – another meaning of “Kunst = Kapital”, i.e. $$$. So best to look in the ArtCyclopedia which has a list of all museums and galleries where Beuys is exhibited. I hope this one will be ok and I’ll add some photos of the water castle instead, that should be fine.

Photograph Video – Arches and Spirals