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New Media Representations:Joseph Beuys

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Enduring Understanding

Students will understand that…the use of ready-mades and other media have created new approaches to art and expanded its definition.

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Overarching1) How did technological advances

affect art?2) What are the issues and concerns

surrounding new media and its representational mechanisms?

Topical1) How is art social and political

activism?2) How is art performed?

Essential Questions

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5W1H

HowInstallation

Performance

WhyBackground

Beliefs

WhatHealing & WoundAutobiographical

WhichFluxus

ActionismConceptual Art

WhereGermany

When1921 - 1986

Joseph Beuys

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Bio-Data

1921: Born in Krefeld, Germany. 1945: Served as a soldier.1947-52: Enrolled in Staatliche Kunstakademie

Düsseldorf.He enrolled in the Düsseldorf Academy of Art to study sculpture after the war.

1961-72: Employed as a professor in Düsseldorf.1962: Befriended Nam June Paik of the Fluxus

Movement.1963-74: Carried out performances of action art related

to Fluxus.1972: Dismissed as art teacher due to

controversy.1986: Died in Düsseldorf.

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1918: World War I ended.1939: World War II started in

Europe.1960s: Conceptual Art.1962-78: Emergence of Fluxus.1940s-90s: Cold War.1970s: The Founding of The Green Party.1959-75: Vietnam War

The Americans withdrew from Vietnam War on 1973

When (1921- 1986)

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Germany Post-war Germany. The erection of Berlin war

in 1961 that divided East and West Germany. Germany Wirtschaftswunder (1950-74)-

describes the rapid reconstruction and development of German economy after WWII. Nevertheless, people in Germany still felt insecure and conservative. They were still grappling with the Nazi past.

Where (1921-86 specific to place)

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Animal Woman, 1949. Cast 1984. Bronze, 46.7 x 13.3 x 10.2 cm

Guggenheim Museum, New York

His Sculpture

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His Ready-mades

Fat Chair, 1963

Wood, wax & metal

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His Ready-mades

Sled, 1969

Wood, wax & metal

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His Ready-mades

Lemon Light,

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His Custom-made

Felt Suit, 1970. 171.4 x 76.8 x 21.6 cm

Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago

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A felt suit that functions like an idea. It was custom-made after his own

suit. Material- felt which is an element of

warmth. Felt to Beuys is a different kind of

warmth. It is a spiritual kind of warmth.

What- Felt Suit

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His Exploration

We Can’t Do it Without Roses, 1972.

Beuys spent 100 days of the exhibition engaging passersby in wide-ranging discussions about educational systems, environmental practices, & political initiatives.

It is a parallel to what Beuys hoped to bring about in state government.

A single rose in a graduated cylinder -- “a rose for direct democracy” -- stood atop an office table throughout the exhibition.

The rose also symbolized Beuys’s idea of revolution: a gradual, organic blossoming from within.

This simple image captures the essence of Beuys’s philosophy- the need to unite spirit & science, love & knowledge.

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His Installations

Virgin, 1979.Chalk, tempera, wood, and soap on blackboard, 84 x 125.3 cm

Guggenheim Museum, New York

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Earthquake, 1981Installation, 203.2 x 349.9 x 490.2 cm

Guggenheim Museum, New York

His Installations

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F.I.U.: The Defense of Nature, 1983 - 1985.Automobile, shovels, copper pieces, pamphlets, and

blackboards, Installation area approximately 127 x 533.4 x 177.8 cm

Guggenheim Museum, New York

His Installations

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Untitled, 1984.Brass and glass vitrine containing "Encounter with Beuys (Incontro con

Beuys)" 190.5 x 199.7 x 59.7 cm

Guggenheim Museum, New York

His Installations

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Lightning with Stack in its Glare (Blitzchlag Mit Litschein auf Hirsch), 1985.

Installation, 203.2 x 349.9 x 490.2 cmGuggenheim Museum, New York

His Installations

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His Performances

How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare, 1965.

Performed at Galerie Schmela, Dusseldorf, Germany

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What- How to Explain Pictures… Trance-like action- a conversation between animal

and human. Beuy cradled a dead hare in his arm and muttered to

it for 3 hours. At times, he took the hare to the pictures/paintings

behind him and lifted its paw to touch them gently. “I explained to him everything that was to be seen. I

let him touch the pictures with his paws & meanwhile talked to him about them … I explained them to him because I really do not like explaining them to people. Of course there is a shadow of truth in this. A hare comprehends more than many human beings with their stubborn rationalism.” – Beuys-

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What- How to Explain Pictures… His head was covered with honey

and gold leaf. The sole of his shoes are made of

lead and felt, one on each side.

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His Performances

I Like America and America Likes Me, 1974.Performance

Rene Block Gallery, New York

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I Like America and America Likes Me Beuys touches down at the airport and proceeds straight to the gallery.

Beuys arrives at the gallery in an ambulance wrapped in felt.

He spends three days in the gallery room with the coyote.

He has his felt blankets, walking stick and gloves with him.

Everyday, fifty new copies of the Wall Street Journal is introduced due to the soiling of the old copies by the coyote.

Beuys mimics the coyote as it plays, eats and peers out of the window, while still keeping his eyes fixed on it.

The coyote’s behavior ranged from cautionary, detached, aggressive and friendly at times.

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I Like America and America Likes Me Both animal and man co-exists in the same space throughout the performance.

At the end, Beuys is again wrapped in felt and transported straight to the airport.

He has not touched American soil throughout the performance.

The coyote is an American symbol of the native Indians.

It is revered by the natives for their powers to move between the physical and spiritual realms.

However, when the Europeans settled, they were exterminated like a pests.

This denigration in Beuys’s opinion is what the white men in America has done to the native culture, pushing them into the brink of oblivion.

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I Like America and America Likes Me The title is an irony, a challenge to the hegemony (dominance exercised by a country) of American art.

America is involved in the Vietnam war at this time, and Beuys is not in favor of American military actions in Vietnam.

His explanation that he wants to isolate himself and insulate himself, to see nothing of America but only the coyote reveals the treatment of his arrival and departure.

This performance reminds one of his ritualistic and shamanistic approach to art, working as the healer attending to the some of those wounds perpetrated by the white Americans.

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His Art Project

7000 Oaks, 1982-87. Kassel, Germany

“My objects are to be seen as stimulants for the transformation of the idea of sculpture or of art in general. They should provoke thought about what sculpture can be & how the concept of sculpture can be extended to the invisible materials used by everyone.”

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Some of his autobiographical works…

Tram Stop, 1976Iron, tramlines, four cylinders. rods and

pole Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo,

The Netherlands

I Want to See My Mountains, 1950/71Armoire with mirror, inscribed on the

front left;Wooden chest, bog oak, fabric and

bone…Collection Van Abbemuseum,

Eindhoven, The Netherlands

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What- 7000 Oaks

It is a revitalization project in Kassel Germany. University students were enlisted to help plant

7000 trees, each coupled with a column of basalt, around the city.

The aim is to reforest an industrialized Germany. It is an art-form that transcended the usual

“spatial” boundaries of art.

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WhichConceptual Art An art form where the idea and concept comes before the

artwork. He said; "To me, it’s irrelevant whether a product comes from a

painter, from a sculptor, or from a physicist.” (see Felt Suit)Fluxus An art movement that started in Germany in the 60s. It promoted artistic experimentation that aim for social goals.

Aesthetic is not a goal. It is art that mixes social and political activism. It is a name coined by Lithuanian American George Maciunas. And according to Macuinas, the intention of Fluxus was to

eliminate “the world of bourgeois (middle class) sickness”. In fact, Fluxus has its characteristics derived from Dadaism.

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Actionism Artist as actor. The importance of the art process. Extensions of Abstract Expressionism. Precursor to Performance Art. Other precursors- Happenings & Fluxus. Happenings- are choreographed and

formal events that are also explicit.

Which

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Subject Matter Fat and Felt (Ambivalent)

Fat- On one hand it is nurturing, life-sustaining substance, essential to survival as nourishment & fuel. On the other, it gestures to human decay & the image of burning bodies in extermination camps.

Felt- is warm, protective insulator, but its composition -- compressed fiber or hair -- brings similarly ambiguous references to the body.

Theme The ‘Wound’ is a metaphor for the state of affairs in

the world and his home. He wanted to play the role of shaman in the healing

process. Instead of medicine, art became the vehicle to healing.

What

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Background His youth traces an interest in natural sciences & art. His initial ambition was to be a doctor. He joined the military as a combat pilot. He was wounded several times while serving his duty. He was a British POW towards the end of the WWII. The Crimean “myth”- a story that records his mishap in

Crimea. He was shot down and saved by the Tartar nomads who wrapped him with felt and rubbed him with fat to keep him warm.

His reading interest ranges from philosophy to science, poetry, and literature, to the occult.

His political interest increased over the years. Founder of several activist groups.

Why

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Why

Background In the 50s, he sunk into depression and

went to stay at a farm, The open air and raw terrain connected him to the natural world and influenced his choice of materials for his art.

His political interest increased over the years.

Founder of several activist groups.

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Philosophy To offer society a form of moral, social & psychological

therapy, but not necessarily any form of visual stimulus.

To connect with others through his works (7000 oaks, 1982-87).

Art is not about beauty to Beuys, it is about communication and freedom

Why

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His Social Goals Disarmament (esp. nuclear warfare). More political power for individuals. Educational Reform (see below). Inter-influences between disciplines rather than a centered

view on one’s discipline, for eg: Maths & Science. He wanted to forge an inter-disciplinary, holistic and system of art that would allow him to tie woth philosophy and science.

Green Party- issues involve environmental, non-violence & social justice (eg: the rights of indigenous people)

Why

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Installations Ready-mades or custom-made (Felt Suit,

1970). He also created multiples. Sometimes, they are created after a

lecture (Virgin, 1979)Performances The body itself become art. They share strong affinities with the

conceptual artists. Usually ritualistic in Beuys’s case.

How

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Materials His materials are usually symbolic and

metaphoric. Felt- an element of warmth and insulation.

It is used usually in connection with fat. His sculptures are what they call social

sculptures (7000 oaks).

How

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References http://www.walkerart.org/archive/0/9E43A948839AFC46164.htm

http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/beuys/room_beuys.shtm