Die beste Stadt für Blinde, und andere Berichte

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Die beste Stadt für Blinde, und andere Berichte

Artist Joseph Beuys (German, 1921-1986)

Publisher Suhrkamp Verlag, Zurich, etc, 1980

Printer holograph and rubber stamp additions: Joseph Beuys text: Georg Wagner, Nördlingen

Author Jürg Federspiel (Swiss, 1931 - 2007)

Date1980

Dimensionsbook: 7 7/8 x 4 3/4 x 3/4 in. (200 x 120 x 19mm)
page: 7 7/8 x 4 5/8 in. (200 x 117mm)

MediumOriginal book object: photolithograph of a photograph on coated white wove paper with added holograph script and drawing in black ink (cover), and added copper wire and leaf of text Text: photolithography on cream wove paper, with added rubber stamp impressions in black (typeface: Garamond)

ClassificationBooks

Credit LineMolly and Walter Bareiss Art Fund

Object number

1988.149

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.”Published Referencescf. Schellmann, Jörg, editor, Joseph Beuys, the Multiples: Catalogue raisonné of Multiples and Prints, Cambridge, Mass., 1997, no. 392 (repr.)Exhibition HistorySplendid Pages: The Molly and Walter Bareiss Collection of Modern Illustrated Books, Feb. 14--May 11, 2003