Joseph Beuys

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Joseph Beuys (12 May 1921–23 January 1986) was both a painter, sculptor, medalist, installation artist, art theorist, and pedagogue. His extensive research is rooted in humanism, social theory, and anthroposophy; it culminates in his "extended definition of art" and the possibility of a social sculpture as a sociology, in which he argued for a participative role in shaping culture and politics.

His career was characterized by open public debates on a variety of topics, including political, environmental, socioeconomic, and long-term cultural trends.

He is widely regarded as one of the twentieth century's most influential artists.

(1921–1941) Childhood and early life in the Third Reich (1921–1941).

Joseph Beuys was born in Krefeld, Germany, on May 12th, 1921, to Josef Jakob Beuys (1888–1958), a banker, and Johanna Margarete Beuys née Hülsermann (1889-1974). The family migrated from Krefeld to Kleve, an industrial town in Germany's Lower Rhine region, near the Dutch border, a few years after his birth. Beuys attended primary school at the Katholische Volksschule and secondary school in Cleve (now the Freiherr-vom-SteinGymnasium). He learned how to draw and took piano and cello lessons while studying at school. The natural sciences, as well as Nordic history and mythology, were among other topics of study. He saved the book Systema Naturae by Carl Linnaeus "...from that massive, flaming pile" on his own account when the Nazi Party held its book-burning in Kleve on 19 May 1933 in his school courtyard.

Beuys was a founding member of Hitler Youth in 1936; the party at that time included a vast number of German children and teens; and later this year, membership became compulsory. In September 1936, he appeared at the Nuremberg rally. At the time, he was 15 years old.

Beuys had considered medical school, but in his last years of study, he became interested in sculpture, perhaps inspired by images of Wilhelm Lehmbruck's sculptures. He began working part-time at a circus, where his duties included assisting animals and posturing. He was in charge of the company for about a year. He graduated from school in the spring of 1941, after gaining his Abitur.

Despite having decided on a career in medicine, Beuys joined the Luftwaffe and began training as an aircraft radio operator under Heinz Sielmann's tutelage in Posen, Poland (now Pozna). Both attended lectures on Biology and Zoology at the University of Posen, at that time a Germanized University. He began to consider pursuing a career as an artist during this period.

Beuys was stationed in Crimea and served in several combat bomber units in 1942. He was deployed as rear-gunner in a Ju 87 "Stuka" dive bomber, first stationed in Königgrätz and later moved to the eastern Adriatic zone from 1943 to 1945. Drawings and sketches from this period have been preserved, and his characteristic style is evident in this early work. Beuys' plane crashed near Znamianka on the Crimean Front on March 16, 1944, followed by Freiberg Krasnohvardiye Raion. Beuys constructed the legend that he was rescued from the Tatar tribesmen's crash, wrapped his broken body in animal fat, and felt and nurtured him back to health: Derived from this experience.

According to documents, Beuys remained conscious, was located by a German search commando, and that there were no Tatars in the village at the time. Beuys was admitted to a military hospital, where he stayed for three weeks, from 17 March to April 7. It's consistent with Beuys' argument that his biography has been subjected to his own interpretation; this particular tale has served as a significant reinterpretation of Beuys' cultural identity, and it has provided the first interpretive clue to his use of unconventional materials, among which felt and fat were predominant.

Despite prior injuries, he was sent to the Western Front in August 1944 and assigned to a poorly equipped and trained paratrooper unit. He was awarded a gold medal for his first time being injured in combat more than five times. Beuys was taken prisoner in Cuxhaven and transferred to a British internment camp from which he was released three months later on the 5th of August, the day after unconditional surrender (8 May 1945). He returned to his parents, who had migrated to Kleve, and they had returned to their parents.

Beuys spent time in Kleve, Germany, and painter Hanns Lamers, who encouraged him to pursue art as a full time profession. He joined the Kleve Artists Association, which had been established by Brüx and Lamers. Beuys was accepted in the Düsseldorf Academy of Fine Arts' "Monumental Sculpture" program on April 1, 1946. Initially he was sent to Joseph Enseling's class, which had a more traditional, representational focus, but he managed to change his mentor after three semesters, enrolling the small school of Ewald Mataré in 1947, who had been barred by the Nazis in 1939. Rudolf Steiner's anthroposophical philosophy became an increasingly important basis for Beuys' philosophy. "An approach that refers to reality in a concrete and concrete manner," it is in his opinion, and note that most aspects of epistemological discourse remain without direct relevance to current trends and movements. Beuys re-established contact with Heinz Sielmann and assisted with a number of nature- and wildlife documentaries in the area between 1947 and 1949, reaffirming his interest in science.

Beuys founded the 'Donnerstag-Gesellschaft' in 1947, alongside other artists (including Hann Trier) (Thursday Group). Between 1947 and 1950 in Alfter Castle, the group hosted lectures, exhibitions, performances, and concerts.

Mataré accepted Beuys into his master class in 1951, where he shared a studio with Erwin Heerich that he kept until 1954, a year after graduation. Beuys' presence in Mataré's class as "influencing "a Christian anthroposophic atmosphere," Nobel Laureate Günter Grass recalls. He read Joyce, who was struck by "Irish-mythological elements" in his books, the German romantics Novalis and Friedrich Schiller's, who studied Galileo and Leonardo, whom he admired as examples of artists and scientists who are aware of their place in society and who function accordingly. Participation in the annual exhibition of the Kleve Artists Association in Klebe, where Beuys displayed aquarelles and sketches, a solo exhibition at Hans(German) and Franz Joseph van der Grinten(German) in Kranenburg, as well as a show in the Von der Heydt Museum in Wuppertal, were among the highlights.

Beuys completed his education in 1953, graduating as a master student from Mataré's class at age 32. A gravestone and several pieces of furniture were among his possessions from a few craft-oriented commissions: he earned a modest sum. Beuys suffered with both financial and physical ailments as a result of his wartime experiences throughout the 1950s. His output consisted of drawings and sculpture work. Beuys investigated a variety of unconventional materials and refined his artistic vision, analyzing metaphorical and symbolic connections between natural phenomena and philosophical frameworks. His drawings, which are often difficult to grasp on their own, represent a speculative, contingent, and hermetic investigation of the material world, myth, and philosophy. In 1974, 327 drawings, the majority of which were created during the late 1940s and 1950s, were organized into a group called The Secret Block for a Secret Person in Ireland (a nod to Joyce), and they were on display in Oxford, Edinburgh, Dublin, and Belfast.

A physical and psychological crisis emerged in 1956, and Beuys entered a period of intense depression. In Kranenburg, he recovered at the home of his most important early patrons, the van der Grinten brothers. Beuys participated in an international competition for an Auschwitz-Birkenau memorial in 1958. His plan didn't win, and his concept was never realized. Beuys began a series of drawings related to Joyce's Ulysses in 1958. The six exercise books of drawings, which were finished in about 1961, would constitute, Beuys announced, an extension of Joyce's seminal book. Beuys married Eva Wurmbach in 1959. They had two children, Wenzel (born 1961) and Jessyka (born 1964).

Beuys was appointed professor of'monumental sculpture' at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf in 1961. His students included artists Anatol Herzfeld, Katharina Sieverding, Jörg Immendorff, Blinky Palermo, Peter Angermann, Elias Maria Reti, Walter Dahn, Johannes Stüttgen Sigmar Polke, and Friederike Weske. Elias Maria Reti, his youngest student, began to study art in his class at the age of 15.

Beuys gained greater public attention in 1964 when he appeared at a festival at Aachen's earliest twentieth anniversary of an assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler. Beuys produced a protest or Aktion that was interrupted by a group of students, one of whom assaulted Beuys, punching him in the chest. In the media, a portrait of the artist, nose bloodied and arm raised, was circulated. Beuys' idiosyncratic CV, which he titled Lebenslauf/Werklauf (Life Course/Work Course) was released for this 1964 festival. It was a self-consciously fictionalized story of the artist's life, in which historical events mingle with metaphorical and mythical discourse;' he says his Ulysses Extension was carried out at James Joyce's request (which was impossible considering that the writer was long dead by 1961). This paper represents a blurring of fact and fiction that was supposed to be characteristic of Beuys' self-created persona.

Beuys demonstrated his social philosophies by removing entry requirements to his Düsseldorf class. This renegade program created a lot of institutional turmoil in the late 1960s, coming to a head in October 1972, when Beuys was barred from his post. He had 142 applicants who had not been accepted who wanted to enroll in his classes this year. Beuys and 16 students then occupied the academy's offices in order to obtain a hearing regarding their admission. They were accepted by the academy, but Beuys' relationship with the school was irreconcilable. A surge of protests from students, musicians, and analysts followed Beuys' dismissal, which Beuys refused to accept. Despite being out of office, Beuys maintained a regular schedule of public lectures and discussions and became more popular in German politics. Despite this dismissal, the walkway on the academy's side of the Rhine is named for Beuys. Beuys became a visiting professor at several universities (1980-1955).

"The most important discussion is epistemological in character," Beuys said, demonstrating his enthusiasm for continual intellectual exchange. Beuys tried to bring philosophical theories into his teaching methods. Beuys' Action, "How to explain pictures to a dead hare," exemplifies a performance that is particularly relevant to the educational field because it addresses "the difficulty of explaining things." With his head and gold leaf as a dead hare, Ulmer explains that his art was not limited to the honey, but also that the hare itself is a symbol of representation, of man expressing his thoughts in various ways. Contemporary movements such as performance art may be regarded as "laboratories" for a new pedagogy, since "research and experiment have replaced form as the driving force."

Beuys said in an Artform interview with Willoughby Sharp in 1969 that "teaching is my best work of art" – "the remainder is the garbage product, a demonstration." If you want to express yourself, you must first state something concrete. However, this has only the functionality of a historical record, and has been on display for a long time. Objects aren't as important as they once were. "I want to get to the source of the matter, not the thought behind it." Beuys saw his role as a mentor or shaman who could lead society in a new direction (Sotheby's catalog, 1992).

Beuys did not force his artistic style or techniques on his students; in fact, he kept a lot of his students' artwork and exhibitions hidden from the classroom because he wanted their students to explore their own interests, thoughts, and talents. Beuys' behavior was somewhat contradictory: although he was extremely strict about certain aspects of classroom management and instruction, such as punctuality and the requirement for students to enroll in draftsmanship classes, he encouraged his students to freely choose their own artistic goals without having to dictate curricula. Open "ring discussions" were part of Beuys' pedagogy, where Beuys and his colleagues addressed current political and philosophical topics, such as the role of art, democracy, and the university in society. Free art education for all, the discovery of creativity in everyday life, and the belief that "everyone [was] an artist" were among his concepts in class debate and art-making. Beuys himself encouraged peripheral participation and all manner of expression to arise during these discussions. Although some of Beuys' students enjoyed the open discussion of the Ringgesprache, some, including Palermo and Immendorf, argued against the classroom organization and anarchic characteristics, eventually abandoning his theories and theories entirely.

Beuys has also pushed art outside of the (art) framework and opening it up to a variety of possibilities, opening creativity to all areas of life. His nontraditional and anti-establishment pedagogical philosophy made him the object of much controversy, and he fought the policy of "restricted entry," which restricted only a few select students were allowed to attend art classes, encouraging students to over-enroll in his courses (Anastasia Shartin), true to his belief that those who have something to teach and those who want to learn should come together. Beuys created a charismatic artist persona who infused his work with mystical overtones and led him to be branded "shaman" and "messianic" in the popular press, according to Cornelia Lauf (1992).

Beuys had adopted shamanism not only as a display mode of his art but also in his own life. Although the artist as a shaman has long been popular in modern art (Picasso, Gauguin), Beuys is unusual in that respect because he integrated "his art and his life into the shaman role." Beuys believed that humanity, with its focus on reason, was attempting to ban emotions and thus eliminate a major source of energy and inspiration. In his first lecture tour in the United States, he spoke about humanity's changing state and that as "spiritual" beings we should rely on both our emotions and our thinking as they represent total energy and creativity for every individual. Beuys wrote about how we must seek out and ignite our spirituality and connect it to our thinking powers in order to ensure that "our vision of the world must embrace all of the invisible energies with which we have lost touch."

Beuys' performance art was seen as both educated and Beuys' art was both shamanistic and psychoanalytic to both educate and heal the general public.

"It was also a strategic stage to use the shaman's reputation, but then, I gave scientific lectures." Also, on one hand, I was a kind of modern scientific analyst, but in the course, I was a synthetic shaman. This effort was intended to incite in people an inquiring question rather than a complete and well-built structure. It was a sort of psychoanalysis, with all the energy and culture's issues.

"His intention was to use these two modes of discourse and knowledge as pedagogues," Beuys' art was described as both instructive and therapeutic." He used shamanistic and psychoanalytic techniques to "manipulate symbols" and affect his audience. Beuys had worn a felt cap, a felt jacket, a cane, and a vest as his everyday appearance in his personal life. The imagining of him being saved by Tartar herdsmen may have been an explanation for him's use of things like felt and fat.

Between 1955 and 1957, Beuys suffered with severe depression. He discovered that "his personal tragedy" led him to a lot of anxiety in life, which prompted him to question everything in life, which he described as "a shamanistic initiation." He saw death not only as a human being but also death in the atmosphere, and as a result of his art and political activism, he became a strong defender of environmental degradation.

He said at the time,

"I don't use shamanism to refer to death, but vice versa – I refer to the tragic history of the times we live in." However, I also point out that the present's tragic personality will be overcome in the future."

In Beuys' lifetime, the only significant retrospective of Beuys' work was on display at the Guggenheim Museum in New York in 1979. The exhibition has been described as a "lightning rod for American criticism" in its description, as it did some persuasive and polemical responses.

Beuys died of heart disease on January 23, 1986, in Düsseldorf.

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