88-715: The Free International University ( FIU ) for Creativity and Interdisciplinary Research was a support organization founded by the German artist Joseph Beuys . He founded it together with writer Heinrich Böll , Klaus Staeck (1st chairman), Georg Meistermann (2nd chairman) and Willi Bongard (secretary), Caroline Tisdall and Robert McDowell who wrote the FIU's feasibility report for the EC's Ralph Dahrendorf, and Enrico Wolleb, R.D. Laing, Tapio Varis, Dorothy Walker, Conrad Atkinson, Dr. Rhea Thöngens, and many others, based on principles laid down in
176-557: A Germanized university . During this time he began to consider pursuing a career as an artist. In 1942, Beuys was stationed in the Crimea and was a member of various combat bomber units. From 1943 onward, he was deployed as rear-gunner in a Ju 87 "Stuka" dive-bomber, initially stationed in Königgrätz , later moving to the eastern Adriatic region . Drawings and sketches from this time have been preserved, and his characteristic style
264-537: A German search commando, and that there were no Tatars in the village at the time. Beuys was brought to a military hospital where he stayed for three weeks, from 17 March to 7 April. It is consistent with Beuys' work that his biography would have been subject to his own reinterpretation; this particular story has served as a powerful origin myth for Beuys's artistic identity, and has provided an initial interpretive key to his use of unconventional materials, amongst which felt and fat were central. Despite prior injuries, he
352-416: A couple of seconds before hitting the ground. Luckily I was not strapped in – I always preferred free movement to safety belts ... My friend was strapped in and he was atomized on impact – there was almost nothing to be found of him afterwards. But I must have shot through the windscreen as it flew back at the same speed as the plane hit the ground and that saved me, though I had bad skull and jaw injuries. Then
440-445: A dead animal preserves more powers of intuition than some human beings with their stubborn rationality. The problem lies in the word 'understanding' and its many levels, which cannot be restricted to rational analysis. Imagination, inspiration, and longing all lead people to sense that these other levels also play a part in understanding. This must be the root of reactions to this action, and is why my technique has been to try and seek out
528-480: A dead hare with his head covered with honey and gold leaf, and Ulmer argues not only that the honey on the head but the hare itself are models of thinking, of man embodying his ideas in forms. Contemporary movements such as performance art may be considered 'laboratories' for a new pedagogy since "research and experiment have replaced form as the guiding force". During an Artforum interview with Willoughby Sharp in 1969, Beuys added to his famous statement – "teaching
616-424: A direct and practical way, and that by comparison, all forms of epistemological discourse remain without direct relevance to current trends and movements." Reaffirming his interest in science, Beuys re-established contact with Heinz Sielmann , and assisted with a number of nature- and wildlife documentaries in the region between 1947 and 1949. In 1947 Beuys, along with other artists (including Hann Trier ), founded
704-687: A growing network of Social Sculpture Hubs in Germany, India, Holland, Brazil and UK. Beuys was professor at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf from 1961 until 1972. He was a founding member and life-long supporter of the German Green Party . Joseph Beuys was born in Krefeld, Germany , on 12 May 1921, to Josef Jakob Beuys (1888–1958), a merchant, and Johanna Maria Margarete Beuys née Hülsermann (1889–1974). Soon after his birth,
792-432: A host of supporting notions encompassing cultural and political concepts, Beuys crafted a charismatic artistic persona that infused his work with mystical overtones and led him to be called "shaman" and "messianic" in the popular press." Beuys had adopted shamanism not only as a presentation mode of his art but also in his own life. Although the artist as a shaman has been a trend in modern art ( Picasso , Gauguin ), Beuys
880-538: A large triangle or tossing his leather gloves to the animal; the performance continuously shifted between elements that were required by the realities of the situation and elements that had a purely symbolic character. At the end of the three days, Beuys hugged the coyote that had grown quite tolerant of him and was taken to the airport. Again he rode in a veiled ambulance, leaving America without having set foot on its ground. As Beuys later explained: 'I wanted to isolate myself, insulate myself, see nothing of America other than
968-410: A manifesto written by Joseph Beuys and Heinrich Böll and the 1975/6 feasibility study by art critic Caroline Tisdall. It was founded as a "organizational place of research, work, and communication" to ponder the future of society including political-economy. As a free University it was intended to supplement the state educational system with interdisciplinary work and cooperation between the sciences and
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#17327718630791056-478: A more traditional, representational focus, but he managed to change his mentor after three semesters, joining the small class of Ewald Mataré in 1947, who had rejoined the academy the previous year, after having been banned by the Nazis in 1939. The anthroposophical philosophy of Rudolf Steiner became an increasingly important basis for Beuys's philosophy. In his view it is "...an approach that refers to reality in
1144-515: A new direction. At the Düsseldorf Academy of Art, Beuys did not impose his artistic style or techniques on his students; in fact, he kept much of his work and exhibitions hidden from the classroom because he wanted his students to explore their own interests, ideas, and talents. Beuys's actions were somewhat contradictory: while he was extremely strict about certain aspects of classroom management and instruction, such as punctuality and
1232-428: A parable of cultural work in a public medium. The authority of those who dare — or are so bold as — to speak publicly results from the fact that they isolate themselves from the gaze of the public, under the gaze of the public, in order to still address it in indirect speech, relayed through a medium. What is constituted in this ceremony is authority in the sense of authorship, in the sense of a public voice....Beuys stages
1320-510: A physical and psychological crisis, and Beuys entered a period of serious depression. He recovered at the house of his most important early patrons, the van der Grinten brothers, in Kranenburg. In 1958, Beuys participated in an international competition for an Auschwitz-Birkenau memorial. His proposal did not win and his design was never realised. In 1958, Beuys began a cycle of drawings related to Joyce's Ulysses . Completed in around 1961,
1408-580: A solo show at the home of Hans [ de ] and Franz Joseph van der Grinten [ de ] in Kranenburg as well as a show in the Von der Heydt Museum in Wuppertal . Beuys finished his education in 1953, graduating at age 32 as master student from Mataré's class. He had a modest income from a number of craft-oriented commissions: a gravestone and several pieces of furniture. Throughout
1496-522: A speculative, contingent and hermetic exploration of the material world, myth and philosophy. In 1974, 327 drawings, the majority of which were made during the late 1940s and 1950s, were collected into a group entitled The Secret Block for a Secret Person in Ireland (a reference to Joyce), and exhibited in Oxford, Edinburgh, Dublin, and Belfast. In 1956, artistic self-doubt and material impoverishment led to
1584-422: A strategic stage to use the shaman's character but, subsequently, I gave scientific lectures. Also, at times, on one hand, I was a kind of modern scientific analyst, on the other hand, in the actions, I had a synthetic existence as shaman. This strategy aimed at creating in people an agitation for instigating questions rather than for conveying a complete and perfect structure. It was a kind of psychoanalysis with all
1672-454: A strong critic of environmental destruction. He said at the time, "I don't use shamanism to refer to death, but vice versa – through shamanism, I refer to the fatal character of the times we live in. But at the same time I also point out that the fatal character of the present can be overcome in the future." The only major retrospective of Beuys work to be organised in Beuys's lifetime opened at
1760-584: A suburb of Kleve . After returning to Kleve , Beuys met local sculptor Walter Brüx and painter Hanns Lamers, who encouraged him to take up art as a full-time career. He joined the Kleve Artists Association, which had been established by Brüx and Lamers. On 1 April 1946, Beuys enrolled in the monumental sculpture program at the Düsseldorf Academy of Fine Arts . Initially he was assigned to the class of Joseph Enseling , who had
1848-487: A wave of protests from students, artists and critics. Although now without an institutional position, Beuys continued an intense schedule of public lectures and discussions, and became increasingly active in German politics. Despite this dismissal, the walkway on the academy's side of the Rhine is named for Beuys. Later in life, Beuys became a visiting professor at various institutions (1980–1985). "The most important discussion
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#17327718630791936-445: Is an explanation for his adopting materials such as felt and fat. Beuys experienced severe depression between 1955 and 1957. After recovering, he observed at the time that "his personal crisis" caused him to question everything in life, and he called the incident "a shamanistic initiation." He saw death not only in its inevitability for people, but also death in the environment, and through his art and his political activism, he became
2024-494: Is epistemological in character," stated Beuys, demonstrating his desire for continuous intellectual exchange. Beuys attempted to apply philosophical concepts to his pedagogical practice. Beuys's action, How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare , exemplifies a performance that is especially relevant to the pedagogical field because it addresses "the difficulty of explaining things". The artist spent three hours explaining his art to
2112-546: Is evident in this early work. On 16 March 1944, Beuys's plane crashed on the Crimean Front close to Znamianka, then Freiberg Krasnohvardiiske Raion . Drawing from this incident, Beuys fashioned the myth that he was rescued from the crash by nomadic Tatar tribesmen , who wrapped his broken body in animal fat and felt and nursed him back to health: "Had it not been for the Tartars I would not be alive today. They were
2200-410: Is my greatest work of art" – that "the rest is the waste product, a demonstration. If you want to express yourself you must present something tangible. But after a while this has only the function of a historic document. Objects aren't very important any more. I want to get to the origin of matter, to the thought behind it." Beuys saw his role of an artist as a teacher or shaman who could guide society in
2288-445: Is not to produce honey, but to think, to produce ideas. In this way the deathlike character of thinking becomes lifelike again. For honey is undoubtedly a living substance. Human thinking can be lively too. But it can also be intellectualized to a deadly degree, and remain dead, and express its deadliness in, say, the political or pedagogic fields. Gold and honey indicate a transformation of the head, and therefore, naturally and logically,
2376-472: Is overrated'). Beuys's relationship with the legacy of Duchamp and the readymade is a central (if often unacknowledged) aspect of the controversy surrounding his practice. On 12 January 1985, Beuys, together with Andy Warhol and Kaii Higashiyama , became involved in the "Global-Art-Fusion" project. This was a fax art project, initiated by the conceptual artist Ueli Fuchser, in which faxes with drawings of all three artists were sent within 32 minutes around
2464-421: Is the thalidomide child", and attempts to bring attention to the plight of children affected by the drug. ( Thalidomide was a sleep aid introduced in the 1950s in Germany. It was promoted to help relieve the symptoms of morning sickness and was prescribed in unlimited doses to pregnant women. However, it quickly became apparent that Thalidomide caused death and deformities in some children of mothers who had taken
2552-489: Is unusual in that respect as he integrated "his art and his life into the shaman role." Beuys believed that humanity, with its turn on rationality, was trying to eliminate emotions and thus eliminate a major source of energy and creativity. In his first lecture tour in America he espoused that humanity was in an evolving state and that as "spiritual" beings we ought to draw on both our emotions and our thinking as they represent
2640-897: The Electorate of the Palatinate ). During the Napoleonic Wars , the count palatine's art collection was inherited by the Wittelsbach family and moved to Munich , prompting the Prussian government—who had annexed the Düsseldorf region after Napoleon had surrendered—to change it into a Royal Arts Academy in Düsseldorf, in 1819. In the 1850s, the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf became internationally renowned, with many students coming from Scandinavia, Russia and
2728-551: The Free International University for Creativity & Interdisciplinary Research (FIU). Through his talks and performances, he also formed The Party for Animals and The Organisation for Direct Democracy. He was a member of a Dadaist art movement Fluxus and singularly inspirational in developing of Performance Art, called Kunst Aktionen, alongside Wiener Aktionismus that Allan Kaprow and Carolee Schneemann termed Art Happenings . Today, internationally,
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2816-617: The Guggenheim Museum in New York in 1979. The exhibition has been described as a "lightning rod for American criticism," eliciting as it did some powerful and polemical responses. Beuys died of heart failure on 23 January 1986, in Düsseldorf . Beuys's extensive body of work principally comprises four domains: works of art in a traditional sense (painting, drawing, sculpture and installations), performance, contributions to
2904-575: The Nazi Party staged their book-burning in Kleve on 19 May 1933 in his school courtyard, he salvaged the book Systema Naturae by Carl Linnaeus "... from that large, flaming pile". In 1936, Beuys was a member of the Hitler Youth ; the organization at that time included a large majority of German children and adolescents, and later that year membership became compulsory. He participated in
2992-580: The Nuremberg rally in September 1936. He was 15 years old at the time. Given his early interest in natural sciences, Beuys had considered a career in medical studies, but in his last years of school he became interested in pursuing a career in sculpture, possibly influenced by pictures of Wilhelm Lehmbruck 's sculptures. In around 1939 he began working part-time at a circus, where his responsibilities included posturing and taking care of animals. He held
3080-484: The "Irish-mythological elements" in his works, the German romantics Novalis and Friedrich Schiller , and studied Galileo and Leonardo , whom he admired as examples of artists and scientists who are conscious of their position in society and who work accordingly. Early shows include participation in the Kleve Artists Association annual exhibition in Kleve's Villa Koekkoek , where Beuys showed aquarelles and sketches,
3168-404: The 'Exhibition of a wound;' he claims his Ulysses Extension to have been carried out 'at James Joyce's request' – impossible, given that the writer was long dead by 1961). This document marks a blurring of fact and fiction that was to be characteristic of Beuys' self-created persona. Beuys manifested his social philosophical ideas in abolishing entry requirements to his Düsseldorf class. Throughout
3256-400: The 1950s, Beuys struggled both financially and from the trauma of his wartime experiences. His output consisted of drawings and sculptural work. Beuys explored a range of unconventional materials and developed his artistic agenda, exploring metaphorical and symbolic connections between natural phenomena and philosophical systems. Often difficult to interpret in themselves, his drawings constitute
3344-605: The Social Sculpture Lab, curated by Sacks and hosted by the Documenta Archive in 2021 for the Beuys Centenery. The Social Sculpture Lab continues to engage with, develop and share Beuys' social sculpture understandings through such initiatives as the 7000 HUMANS Global Social Forest,. which has close connections with Beuys' 7000 Oaks, Sacks' social sculpture-connective practice methodologies, and
3432-564: The United States to learn, among other things, the genre and landscape painting associated with the Düsseldorf school . Students of Bernd and Hilla Becher at the Düsseldorf School of Photography have included Laurenz Berges , Elger Esser , Bernhard Fuchs , Andreas Gursky , Candida Höfer , Axel Hütte , Simone Nieweg , Thomas Ruff , Jörg Sasse , Thomas Struth , Petra Wunderlich . The academy has its own museum:
3520-426: The academy include Joseph Beuys , Gerhard Richter , Magdalena Jetelová , Gotthard Graubner , Nam June Paik , Nan Hoover , Katharina Fritsch , Tony Cragg , Ruth Rogers-Altmann , Sigmar Polke , Anselm Kiefer , Rosemarie Trockel , Thomas Schütte , Katharina Grosse , Michael Krebber and photographers Thomas Ruff , Thomas Demand , Christopher Williams , Thomas Struth , Andreas Gursky and Candida Höfer . In
3608-434: The action that most captured people's imaginations. On one level this must be because everyone consciously or unconsciously recognizes the problem of explaining things, particularly where art and creative work are concerned, or anything that involves a certain mystery or question. The idea of explaining to an animal conveys a sense of the secrecy of the world and of existence that appeals to the imagination. Then, as I said, even
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3696-423: The ambulance stretcher swathed in felt. He shared this room with a coyote for eight hours over three days. At times he stood, wrapped in a thick, grey blanket of felt, leaning on a large shepherd's staff. At times he lay on the straw, at times he watched the coyote as the coyote watched him and cautiously circled the man or shredded the blanket to pieces, and at times he engaged in symbolic gestures, such as striking
3784-623: The arts while at the same time campaigning for legal equality within educational systems. The FIU was founded on 27 April 1973 in the Düsseldorf studio of Joseph Beuys. Major presentations of FIU occurred in Kassel Documenta (1977 & 1982), London Battersea Arts Centre (1978), Guggenheim Museum Gallery New York (1979), Edinburgh Festival (1974, 1976, 1980), Abruzzo Italy (1984), plus conferences in Erice Sicily (1975), Cambridge (1978), and others. The Free International University
3872-644: The boundaries of the (art) system and opening it up to multiple possibilities, bringing creativity into all areas of life. His nontraditional and anti-establishment pedagogical practice and philosophy made him the focus of much controversy, and to battle the policy of "restricted entry", under which only a few select students were allowed to attend art classes, he deliberately allowed students to over-enroll in his courses (Anastasia Shartin), true to his belief those who have something to teach and those who have something to learn should come together. According to Cornelia Lauf (1992), "in order to implement his idea, as well as
3960-455: The brain and our understanding of thought, consciousness and all the other levels necessary to explain pictures to a hare: the warm stool insulated with felt ... and the iron sole with the magnet. I had to walk on this sole when I carried the hare round from picture to picture, so along with the strange limp came the clank of iron on the hard stone floor—that was all that broke the silence, since my explanations were mute .... This seems to have been
4048-634: The coyote.' In 2013, Dale Eisinger of Complex ranked I Like America and America Likes Me the second greatest work of performance art ever, after Pandrogeny by Genesis P-Orridge . Richard Demarco invited Beuys to Scotland in May 1970 and again in August to show and perform in the Edinburgh International Festival with Günther Uecker , Blinky Palermo and other Düsseldorf artists plus Robert Filliou where they took over
4136-581: The creation of such a public voice as an event that is as dramatic as it is absurd. He thus asserts the emergence of such a voice as an event. At the same time, however, he also undermines this assertion through the lamentably powerless form by which this voice is produced: in emitting half-smothered inarticulate sounds that would have remained inaudible without electronic amplification." Lana Shafer Meador wrote: "Inherent to The Chief were issues of communication and transformation .... For Beuys, his own muffled coughs, breaths, and grunts were his way of speaking for
4224-581: The discovery of creativity in everyday life, and the belief that "everyone [was] an artist." Beuys himself encouraged peripheral activity and all manner of expression to emerge during the course of these discussions. While some of Beuys's students enjoyed the open discourse of the Ringgesprache , others, including Palermo and Immendorf, disapproved of the classroom disorder and anarchic characteristics, eventually rejecting his methods and philosophies altogether. Beuys also advocated taking art outside of
4312-568: The drug. It was on the market for less than four years. In Germany around 2,500 children were affected. ) During his performance, Beuys held a discussion about the tragedy surrounding Thalidomide children. Beuys also prepared Infiltration Homogens for Cello , a cello wrapped in grey felt with a red cross attached, for musician Charlotte Moorman , who performed it in conjunction with Nam June Paik . Caroline Tisdall noted how, in this work, "sound and silence, exterior and interior, are ... brought together in objects and actions as representatives of
4400-622: The energy points in the human power field, rather than demanding specific knowledge or reactions on the part of the public. I try to bring to light the complexity of creative areas." Beuys produced many such spectacular, ritualistic performances, and he developed a compelling persona whereby he took on a liminal, shamanistic role, as if to enable passage between different physical and spiritual states. Further examples of such performances include: Eurasienstab [ de ] (1967), Celtic (Kinloch Rannoch) Scottish Symphony (1970), and I Like America and America Likes Me (1974). The Chief
4488-650: The everyday. Although Beuys participated in a number of Fluxus events, it soon became clear that he viewed the implications of art's economic and institutional framework differently. Indeed, whereas Fluxus was directly inspired by the radical Dada activities emerging during the First World War, Beuys in a 1964 broadcast (from the Second German Television Studio) a different message: Das Schweigen von Marcel Duchamp wird überbewertet [ de ] ('The silence of Marcel Duchamp
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#17327718630794576-413: The face. A photograph of the artist, nose bloodied and arm raised, was circulated in the media. It was for this 1964 festival that Beuys produced an idiosyncratic CV , which he titled Lebenslauf/Werklauf (Life Course/Work Course). The document was a self-consciously fictionalised account of the artist's life, in which historical events mingle with metaphorical and mythical speech (he refers to his birth as
4664-769: The family moved from Krefeld to Kleve , an industrial town in Germany's Lower Rhine region, close to the Dutch border. Beuys attended primary school at the Katholische Volksschule and secondary school at the Staatliches Gymnasium Cleve (now the Freiherr-vom-Stein-Gymnasium ). While in school he developed skills in drawing and took lessons in piano and cello. Other interests included the natural sciences, as well as Nordic history and mythology. By his own account, when
4752-530: The glass of the gallery's window. His face was covered in honey and gold leaf, and an iron slab was attached to his boot. In his arms he cradled a dead hare, into whose ear he uttered muffled noises as well as explanations of the drawings lining the walls. Such materials and actions had specific symbolic value for Beuys. For example, honey is the product of bees, and for Beuys (following Rudolf Steiner), bees represented an ideal society of warmth and brotherhood. Gold had its importance within alchemical enquiry, and iron,
4840-648: The group 'Donnerstag-Gesellschaft' ( Thursday Group ). The group organised discussions, exhibitions, events and concerts between 1947 and 1950 in Alfter Castle. In 1951, Mataré accepted Beuys into his master class where he shared a studio with Erwin Heerich , that he kept until 1954, a year after graduation. Nobel laureate Günter Grass recollects Beuys's influence in Mataré's class as shaping "a Christian anthroposophic atmosphere". He read Joyce , impressed by
4928-510: The hares, giving a voice to those who are misunderstood or do not possess their own....In the midst of this metaphysical communication and transmission, the audience was left out in the cold. Beuys deliberately distanced the viewers by physically positioning them in a separate gallery room — only able to hear, but not see what is occurring — and by performing the action for a grueling nine hours." Beuys performed Infiltration Homogen for Piano [ de ] in Düsseldorf in 1966. The result
5016-439: The human one. It's a way of going beyond our restricted understanding to expand the scale of producers of energy among co-operators in other species, all of whom have different abilities[.]" Beuys also acknowledged the physical demands of the performance. "It takes a lot of discipline to avoid panicking in such a condition, floating empty and devoid of emotion and without specific feelings of claustrophobia or pain, for nine hours in
5104-415: The human position is marked by the two red crosses signifying emergency: the danger that threatens if we stay silent and fail to make the next evolutionary step...Such an object is intended as a stimulus for discussion, and in no way is to be taken as an aesthetic product." During the performance he also used wax earplugs and drew and wrote on a blackboard. The piece is subtitled "The greatest composer here
5192-533: The instrument is dressed, swaddled even, in felt, legs and all, and creates a clumsy, pachyderm-like metaphor for a kind of silent entombment. But it is also a power incubated, protected and storing potential expressions ... pieces like Infiltration showcase the intuitive power Beuys had, understanding that some materials had invested in them human language and human gesture through use and proximity, through morphological sympathy." Art historian Uwe Schneede [ de ] considers this performance pivotal for
5280-603: The job for about a year. He graduated from school in the spring of 1941, having successfully earned his Abitur . Although he finally opted for a career in medicine, in 1941, Beuys volunteered for the Luftwaffe , and began training as an aircraft radio operator under the tutelage of Heinz Sielmann in Posen, Poland (now Poznań ). They both attended lectures on biology and zoology at the University of Posen , at that time
5368-600: The largest performance art group is BBeyond in Belfast, led by Alastair MacLennan who knew Beuys and like many adapts Beuys's ethos. Beuys is known for his "extended definition of art" in which the ideas of social sculpture could potentially reshape society and politics. He frequently held open public debates on a wide range of subjects, including political, environmental, social, and long-term cultural issues. Beuys' social sculpture proposals and underpinning ideas have been extensively explored, shared and developed through
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#17327718630795456-462: The late 1960s, this renegade policy caused great institutional friction, coming to a head in October 1972 when Beuys was dismissed from his post. That year, he found 142 applicants who had not been accepted whom he wished to enroll under his teaching. Beuys and 16 students subsequently occupied the offices of the academy to force a hearing regarding their admission. They were admitted by the school, but
5544-468: The main spaces of the Edinburgh College of Art . The exhibition was a defining moment for British and European art, directly influencing several generations of artists and curators. Kunstakademie D%C3%BCsseldorf The Kunstakademie Düsseldorf is the academy of fine arts of the state of North Rhine Westphalia at the city of Düsseldorf , Germany. Notable artists who studied or taught at
5632-434: The metal of Mars, stood for a masculine principle of strength and connection to the earth. A photograph from the performance, in which Beuys sits with the hare, has been described "by some critics as a new Mona Lisa of the 20th century," though Beuys disagreed with the description. Beuys explained his performance this way: "In putting honey on my head I am clearly doing something that has to do with thinking. Human ability
5720-510: The need for students to take draftsmanship classes, he encouraged his students to freely set their own artistic goals without having to conform to set curricula. Another aspect of Beuys's pedagogy was open "ring discussions" or Ringgesprache , where Beuys and his students discussed political and philosophical issues of the day, including the role of art, democracy, and the university in society. Some of his ideas espoused in class discussion and in his art-making included free art education for all,
5808-524: The nomads of the Crimea, in what was then no man's land between the Russian and German fronts, and favoured neither side. I had already struck up a good relationship with them and often wandered off to sit with them. 'Du nix njemcky' they would say, 'du Tartar,' and try to persuade me to join their clan. Their nomadic ways attracted me of course, although by that time their movements had been restricted. Yet, it
5896-548: The organization Mehr Demokratie e.V. and the Omnibus for direct Democracy. Joseph Beuys Joseph Heinrich Beuys ( / b ɔɪ s / BOYSS , German: [ˈjoːzɛf ˈbɔʏs] ; 12 May 1921 – 23 January 1986) was a German artist, teacher, performance artist, and art theorist whose work reflected concepts of humanism , sociology. With Heinrich Böll , Johannes Stüttgen [ de ; fr ] , Caroline Tisdall, Robert McDowell, and Enrico Wolleb, Beuys created
5984-419: The physical and spiritual worlds." Australian sculptor Ken Unsworth wrote that Infiltration "became a black hole: instead of sound escaping, sound was drawn into it ... It wasn't as if the piano was dead. I realised Beuys identified felt with saving and preserving life." Artist Dan McLaughlin wrote of the "quiet absorptive silencing of an instrument capable of an infinity of expressions The power and potency of
6072-933: The practices, pedagogies, actions and writings of his master student and collaborator Shelley Sacks, first in South Africa in the 1970s as a branch of the Free International University (FIU); in the first Social Sculpture Colloquium, hosted by the Goethe Institute in Glasgow (1995); from 1997-2018 as Professor in Social Sculpture in the Social Sculpture Research Unit (SSRU) at Oxford Brookes University, where Johannes Stüttgen, Caroline Tisdall and Volker Harlan were research fellows; and since 2021, through
6160-468: The problems of energy and culture." Beuys's art was considered both instructive and therapeutic – "His intention was to use these two forms of discourse and styles of knowledge as pedagogues." He used shamanistic and psychoanalytic techniques to "manipulate symbols" and affect his audience. In his personal life, Beuys had adopted a felt hat, a felt suit, a cane and a vest as his standard look. The imagined story of him being rescued by Tartar herdsmen perhaps
6248-472: The reception of German avant-garde art in the United States since it paved the way for recognition of not only Beuys' own work but also that of contemporaries such as Georg Baselitz , Kiefer , Lüpertz , and many others in the 1980s. In May 1974, Beuys flew to New York and was taken by ambulance to the site of the performance, a room in the René Block Gallery at 409 West Broadway. Beuys lay on
6336-427: The relationship between Beuys and the school was irreconcilable. He again occupied the university offices with a group of students; the police were called and he was escorted laughing from the building. This was depicted in a photograph which was used to create a 1973 silkscreen print with the title Democracy Is Funny . Shortly after, he was dismissed from his post. The dismissal, which Beuys refused to accept, produced
6424-420: The results amplified by a PA system as viewers observed from the doorway. In her book on Beuys, Caroline Tisdall wrote that The Chief "is the first performance in which the rich vocabulary of the next fifteen years is already suggested," and that its theme is "the exploration of levels of communication beyond human semantics, by appealing to atavistic and instinctual powers." Beuys stated that his presence in
6512-446: The room "was like that of a carrier wave, attempting to switch off my own species' range of semantics." He also said: "For me The Chief was above all an important sound piece. The most recurring sound was deep in the throat and hoarse like the cry of the stag....This is a primary sound, reaching far back. ... The sounds I make are taken consciously from animals. I see it as a way of coming into contact with other forms of existence beyond
6600-440: The same position ... such an action ... changes me radically. In a way it's a death, a real action and not an interpretation." Writer Jan Verwoert noted that Beuys' "voice filled the room, while the source was nowhere to be found. The artist was the focus of attention, yet remained invisible, rolled up in a felt blanket throughout the duration of the event...visitors were...forced to stay in the neighboring room. They could see what
6688-554: The six exercise books of drawings would constitute, Beuys declared, an extension of Joyce's seminal novel. In 1959, Beuys married Eva Wurmbach. They had two children, Wenzel (born 1961) and Jessyka (born 1964). In 1961, Beuys was appointed professor of monumental sculpture at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. His students were artists Anatol Herzfeld , Katharina Sieverding , Jörg Immendorff , Blinky Palermo , Peter Angermann , Walter Dahn , Johannes Stüttgen [ de ; fr ] , Sigmar Polke and Friederike Weske. His youngest student
6776-525: The stairway of its main entrance are engraved the Words: "Für unsere Studenten nur das Beste" ("For our Students only the Best"). The school was founded by Lambert Krahe in 1762 as a school of drawing . The first female professor, Catharina Treu , was appointed in 1766. In 1773, it became the "Kurfürstlich-Pfälzische Academie der Maler, Bildhauer- und Baukunst" (Academy of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture of
6864-412: The tail flipped over and I was completely buried in the snow. That's how the Tartars found me days later. I remember voices saying 'Voda' (Water), then the felt of their tents, and the dense pungent smell of cheese, fat, and milk. They covered my body in fat to help it regenerate warmth, and wrapped it in felt as an insulator to keep warmth in." Records state that Beuys remained conscious, was recovered by
6952-468: The theory of art and academic teaching, and social and political activities. In 1962, Beuys befriended his Düsseldorf colleague Nam June Paik , a member of the Fluxus movement. This began what was to be a brief formal involvement with Fluxus, a loose international group of artists who championed radical erosion of artistic boundaries, bringing aspects of creative practice outside of the institution and into
7040-407: The total energy and creativity for every individual. Beuys described how we must seek out and energize our spirituality and link it to our thinking powers so that "our vision of the world must be extended to encompass all the invisible energies with which we have lost contact." Beuys saw his performance art as shamanistic and psychoanalytic to both educate and heal the general public. "It was thus
7128-524: The world – from Düsseldorf (Germany) via New York (USA) to Tokyo (Japan), and received at Vienna's Palais-Liechtenstein Museum of Modern Art. This fax event was a sign of peace during the Cold War in the 1980s. Beuys's first solo exhibition in a private gallery opened on 26 November 1965 with one of his most famous performances: How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare . The artist could be viewed through
7216-500: Was Elias Maria Reti who began to study art in his class at the age of 15. Beuys entered wider public consciousness in 1964, when he participated in a festival at the Technical College Aachen which coincided with the 20th anniversary of an assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler. Beuys created a performance or action ( Aktion ) which was interrupted by a group of students, one of whom attacked Beuys, punching him in
7304-399: Was a piano covered entirely in felt with two crosses made of red material affixed to its sides. Beuys wrote: "The sound of the piano is trapped inside the felt skin. In the normal sense a piano is an instrument used to produce sound. When not in use it is silent, but still has a sound potential. Here no sound is possible and the piano is condemned to silence." He also said, "The relationship to
7392-569: Was deployed to the Western Front in August 1944, assigned to a poorly-equipped and trained paratrooper unit . He received a gold Wound Badge for having been wounded in action over five times. On the day after the German unconditional surrender (8 May 1945), Beuys was taken prisoner in Cuxhaven and brought to a British internment camp from which he was released three months later, on 5 August. He returned to his parents who had moved to
7480-588: Was first performed in Copenhagen in 1963 and in Berlin in 1964. Beuys positioned himself on the gallery floor wrapped entirely in a large felt blanket, and remained there for nine hours. Emerging from either end of the blanket were two dead hares. Around him was an installation of copper rod, felt, fat, hair, and fingernails. Inside the blanket Beuys held a microphone into which he breathed, coughed, groaned, grumbled, whispered and whistled at irregular intervals, with
7568-410: Was happening but remained barred from direct physical access to the event. The partial closing-off of the performance space from the audience space created distance, and at the same time increased the attraction of the artist's presence. He was present acoustically and physically as part of a piece of sculpture, but also absent, invisible, untouchable[.]" Verwoert suggests that The Chief "can be read as
7656-657: Was revisited and taken further by various people and groups, including in Edinburgh (Demarco Foundation and Summerhall), Belfast (Troubled Image Group and Art & Research Exchange), and London by Robert McDowell, Richard Demarco , and Caroline Tisdall, by Renee Block, the author Rainer Rappmann under the FIU-Verlag and the F.I.U.s in Amsterdam , see: FIU-amsterdam , Antwerp , Gelsenkirchen , Hamburg , and Munich , which were begun by students of Beuys. They also include
7744-434: Was they who discovered me in the snow after the crash, when the German search parties had given up. I was still unconscious then and only came round completely after twelve days or so, and by then I was back in a German field hospital. So the memories I have of that time are images that penetrated my consciousness. The last thing I remember was that it was too late to jump, too late for the parachutes to open. That must have been
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