Joseph Beuys

Joseph Beuys 1921 Krefeld - 1986 Düsseldorf Joseph Beuys, born in Krefeld on May 12, 1921, fundamentally and lastingly changed contemporary art and also the understanding of art after the Second World War with his work as an artist, art theorist and inspiring as well as provocative teacher. Joseph Beuys demanded an expanded concept of art and formulated the basic ideas of "social sculpture" in his works, actions and speeches. The art-theoretical concept of "social sculpture" or "social sculpture" refers to both the formative and transformative power of art on society and the creativity of all people, through which they can change and shape social and political conditions and life itself with actions and processes. "Jeder Mensch ein Künstler" 1941, Joseph Beuys, after dropping out of school without graduating, volunteers for the Air Force. Because of his red-green blindness, he is not trained as a pilot but as a radio operator and gunner. In 1944, his plane crashes during a mission over the Crimea. Half truth, half myth corresponds to Joseph Beuys' rescue by Crimean Tatars, who wrap him with felt and warm him, treat his wounds with grease and thus save his life. In August 1945, Joseph Beuys returned to Kleve. He turns to art and studies with the painter Hanns Lamers and the sculptor Walther Brüx, becoming a member of the Niederrheinischer Künstlerbund. 1946-1952 Joseph Beuys studies at the Düsseldorf Art Academy, where he is a master student of Ewald Mataré. 1953 First exhibitions of drawings and sculptures in Kranenburg and Wuppertal. In 1959 he marries Eva Wurmbach, an art teacher, and they have two children. From 1961 to 1972 Joseph Beuys himself is a professor at the Düsseldorf Art Academy, with a formative influence on his numerous students, also through sensational actions such as the "Festum Fluxorum Fluxus" held on two evenings in the auditorium of the Academy in 1963. From 1964 until his death, Joseph Beuys is involved in all Documenta exhibitions in Kassel, the world's most important show for contemporary art. In 1965 the first commercial gallery exhibition takes place at Alfred Schmela's in Düsseldorf, which Joseph Beuys opens on November 26 with the action "How to explain the pictures to the dead rabbit". In 1967 Beuys founds the "German Student Party" with his students, among other things to obtain a fair admission procedure for students. In 1971, the "Organization for Direct Democracy through Referendum" follows; the organization's office is Beuys' contribution to Documenta 5 in Kassel in 1972. After several protests and occupations of the secretariat of the Düsseldorf Art Academy, Joseph Beuys is dismissed as professor without notice on October 10, 1972. In 1973 the "Free International University for Creativity and Interdisciplinary Research" (FIU) is founded. 1974 Beuys travels for the first time to the USA, where the gallery owner Ronald Feldman organizes the lecture tour "Energy Plan for the Western Man", during which Beuys speaks to students at art schools in New York, Chicago and Minneapolis. In 1976, Beuys participates in the 37th Venice Biennale. In 1978, as a conclusion to the legal dispute over his dismissal, Beuys receives back his professorial title as well as the right to use his studio. In 1979 he runs for the European Parliament. In the same year, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York shows the first retrospective of Joseph Beuys' works. Exception of the art of the 2nd half of the 20th century Not least the immense number of honors, exhibitions and events on the occasion of the 100th birthday of Joseph Beuys in 2021 shows the importance of this charismatic personality that was Joseph Beuys. By no means uncontroversial and often also reviled as a charlatan, he nevertheless became one of the most formative figures in the noisy 1960s and 1970s and a pioneer for the art after him. And looking back, Joseph Beuys often appears as an almost prophetic forward thinker, not least in his efforts to preserve the environment. On January 23, 1986, Joseph Beuys dies in Düsseldorf.