Joseph Beuys

Private Collection, Europe

Madrid, Sala de Exposiciones de la Fundación Caja de Pensiones; Tampere, Sara Hildénin Taidemuseo, Joseph Beuys: Dibujos, Joseph Beuys: Piirustuksia = Zeichnungen, 1985-6, no. 3 illustrated

Colour: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate, although the overall tonality contains fewer magenta undertones in the original. Condition: This work is in very good condition. The two sheets are attached verso to the backing board in several places. Upon very close inspection there is a small and unobtrusive tear towards the upper left corner. All other surface irregularities are likely to be inherent to the artist's working process.
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The following group of works by Joseph Beuys presents a carefully curated selection of the German artist’s multi-media practice. During the 1950s, and after graduating from the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, the artist devoted himself to the study of a wide variety of mythological, philosophical and scientific subjects which would inform his work throughout his career. At the time, Beuys favoured drawing, once explaining that “A drawing is the first visible form in my work, the first visible form of thought, the changing point from the invisible powers to the visible thing” (the artist quoted in: Bernice Rose, ‘The Drawings of Joseph Beuys, MoMA, No. 13, Winter-Spring 1993, p. 17). Nothofagus from 1954, as well as Abstractions 1 and 2 from 1958, are examples of the creative process in his early practice in which the artist’s delicate and sinuous line can almost be seen as a thread of thought. It was not until 1965, however, that the artist had his first solo exhibition at the Galerie Alfred Schmela. During the opening night he performed How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare, which was to become one of his most iconic artworks. An animal with ancient and multiple associated meanings, the hare was for Beuys “a symbol of incarnation. The hare does in reality what man can only do mentally (…) He incarnates himself in the earth and that is important. Or so I see it.” (the artist quoted in: Götz Adriani, et al., Joseph Beuys: Life and Works, New York 1979, p. 132). The animal would appear in later works, sometimes as a result of a performative action, as in 50km from 1985. Other works in this group, such as DDR Tüten, 1977-80, and Rose für Direkte Demokratie, 1973, stand at the very centre of the artist’s later practice. Multiples were for Beuys a means to disseminate his ideas, and he regarded them as the way to reach a broader audience. A teacher at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf from 1961 to 1972, and a visiting lecturer in several other institutions until 1985, the artist considered discussion and exchange of ideas key concepts of his practice, and sought to motivate viewers into debate through his works. The present works thus allow for a deep insight into the artist’s revolutionary practice, one of the most influential in the postwar era.