1921 Krefeld
1986 Düsseldorf

After spending his childhood and schooldays in Kleve Joseph Beuys was shot down as a Luftwaffe pilot in the Crimea in 1941. The local nomadic Tartars looked after him by keeping him warm with fat and felt. These two materials came to figure prominently in his later work. From 1947 to 1951 he studied sculpture with Enseling and Materé at the Düsseldorf Kunstakademie (Academy of Art), where he also began to teach in 1961. In 1963 Beuys' first public Fluxus performance took place within the Festum Fluxorum Fluxus. Shortly afterwards he joined the artists Lueg, Richter, and Polke in a "Demonstration for Capitalistic Realism" in a furniture store in Düsseldorf. Beuys' ever stronger political commitments, the founding of various associations and parties, resulted from his own demand that more creativity should flow into all areas of life, that the state should be moulded like a "Social Sculpture". This culminated in his participation in the occupation of a students' office calling for the right to equal educational opportunities, for which he was dismissed without notice in 1972; however, this decision was revised in 1978. Beuys' work encompasses various artistic media. His stated view was to create a unity between art and life. In this his work exhibits strong influences of anthroposophic teachings, mythology and religion. Joseph Beuys is represented again and again at the documenta and the Biennale in Venice. As early as 1979/80 a comprehensive retrospective is held in the Guggenheim Museum in New York. He achieved international recognition particularly for his long-term action of planting a total of 7,000 oaks, which he launched at the opening of the documenta in 1982.

Beuys, Joseph

Beuys, Joseph

Beuys, Joseph

54 more sold lots