Partitur (2tlg.). 1972/80.
Two sheetsPencil drawing, partly with ink, collage, tape and stamps.
Left sheet signed and dated "1980" on the reverse, right sheet signed and dated "1972" on the reverse. On different types of paper. Each 29.5 x 21 cm (11.6 x 8.2 in), each size of sheet. [EH].

• Joseph Beuys refers to his sketched accounts of his campaigns a 'Partitur' (scores).
• The drawing as a way to take ideas to material realms.
• The 'Partitur' illustrates the thesis "Denken ist Form" (Thinking is Form).

PROVENANCE: Private collection Berlin (acquired from the artist).

EXHIBITION: Joseph Beuys: Dibujos Drawings, Fundacion Caja de Pensiones, Madrid, October 23 - December 1, 1985, cat. no. 78 (with illu)., Museo Civico di Gibellina, January 15 - February 16, 1986.
Joseph Beuys: Pirustuksia Zeichnungen, Städtisches Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach, February 23 - April 20, 1986, Sara Hilénin Taidemuseo, Tampere, September/November1986.
Joseph Beuys: Wo ist Element 3?, Ketterer Kunst, Berlin, March 26 – May 22, 2021.

On the left sheet we see different considerations and terms noted in pencil, which apparently revolve around the mythological brothers "Prometheus and Epimetheus". Epimetheus is married to Pandora, who brings the famous box of plagues to be poured out on humanity as punishment for Prometheus' robbery of the fire into the marriage. Both figures show different paths of human development. The fire stolen from the gods and left to man lead to technical development, while the spontaneous reckless action of Epimetheus ultimately opens Pandora's box and releases misery as a constant companion of progress. Beuys repeatedly speaks of the fact that the opposites in Prometheus and Epimetheus must be united. The graphic work comprises several sheets, which, even though they are exclusively titled as notes, terms, lists, and words, regarded as drawings. A sketched diagram is made unrecognizable with a piece of adhesive tape, word fragments, while fragments of words like "(S)chwelle" or "(Fr)eiheit" and "Heimat" hint at the topic. In the earlier sheet from 1972 mounted in right we find the stamp of the at documenta 5 office of the “Organisation für direkte Demokratie” (Organization for Direct Democracy) in both German and English along with torn strips inscribed with the question regarding the “method awareness for the materialist” or the understanding of the "life-to-life revolutionary". Beuys deliberately revoked legibility and intelligibility of his notes by transforming then into a chaotic structure with echoes of a comprehensible discourse - a drawing that evades rational comprehension. [Eugen Blume]

In good condition. Margins minimally discolored.