Joseph Beuys: Zeichnungen 1947--59, I

Image Not Available

Joseph Beuys: Zeichnungen 1947--59, I

Artist Joseph Beuys (German, 1921-1986)

Publisher Schirmer Verlag, Cologne, 1972

Printer collotype plates: Hannoversche Lichtdruck GmbH, [s.l.]; photolithographs and text: A. Bagel, Graphischer Großbetrieb, Düsseldorf

Binder Erwin Heerich, binding design

Author Hagen Lieberknecht

Date1972

DimensionsBook: H: 14 in. (355 mm); W: 10 5/8 in. (270 mm); Depth: 3/4 in. (19 mm).
Page: H: 13 3/4 in. (349 mm); W: 10 5/16 in. (262 mm).

MediumReproductions (hors texte ): 40 collotypes of drawings on coated white wove paper, plus 24 photolithographs of drawings on white wove paper. Text: photolithography (typeface: Univers).

ClassificationBooks

Credit LineGift of Molly and Walter Bareiss

Object number

1984.269

Not on View

Label TextJoseph Beuys Multiples While in the German air force during World War II, Joseph Beuys almost died in a plane crash in the frozen Crimean peninsula in the Ukraine. He survived because someone wrapped him in felt and an insulating layer of animal fat. As a result of this experience, these materials later became recurring motifs in his works, symbolizing warmth. They also symbolize spiritual warmth, the genesis of change, and/or a spiritual awakening. After the war Beuys became an artist, teaching at the Düsseldorf Academy beginning in 1961. Eleven years later the administration dismissed him because of his unorthodox teaching methods. In response, Beuys founded his own school, the Free International University, where he could teach and create art. Part of his theories of freedom and democracy included the production of multiples—a work of art that could be reproduced many times. With his multiples, Beuys hoped his art and his ideas would reach a large number of people. Beuys often used commonplace materials and drab colors, believing they would evoke a colorful world within the viewer. For him, it did not matter if the multiples were not easily or fully understood. He said, “…the multiples are often quite minimal allusions, just suggestions.”Exhibition HistoryToledo Museum of Art, Being Modern: Fashion, Art & Identity, Sept. 2 - Nov. 27 2005.