Difesa Della Natura

Artist Joseph Beuys (German, 1921-1986)

Publisher Galerie Klein, Bonn, 1982

Date1982

Dimensions8 1/4 x 11 5/8 in. (21 x 29.6 cm)

MediumReproduction: photolithograph of photograph in colors Text: photolithography in black with red on white cardstock

ClassificationBooks

Credit LineMolly and Walter Bareiss Art Fund

Object number

1988.144A

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 HistorySplendid Pages: The Molly and Walter Bareiss Collection of Modern Illustrated Books, Feb. 14--May 11, 2003