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Joseph Beuys: Legacy
Jun
8
6:30 PM18:30
Art History Lecture

Joseph Beuys: Legacy

Tuesday, June 8, 2021
6:30 PM

Perhaps the greatest contribution of Joseph Beuys was his democratic notion that every person in society is a creative artist, and, as such, bears the responsibility for social, political, and economic well-being. Beuys believed with all his heart, that art, and art alone, could transform both society and culture. Much of what has come to be referred to in our time as “relational aesthetics,” owes its origins to the rich repository of ideas developed and promoted by Beuys. There is almost no realm of modern thought which is untouched by the radical reforms proposed by this visionary artist.

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Joseph Beuys: Late Years and Death (1972-1986)
Jun
1
6:30 PM18:30
Art History Lecture

Joseph Beuys: Late Years and Death (1972-1986)

Tuesday, June 1, 2021
6:30 PM

Dismissed from his academic post, due to his controversial admission policy and pedagogical methods, Beuys devoted himself to the expansion of his creative process. He founded several political organizations, including the Free International University for Creativity and Interdisciplinary Research in 1974, and the German Green Party in 1980. Increasingly engaged in the cause of political reform, he announced that society itself was the true work of art. He promulgated the idea of “social sculpture” in public lectures and “actions.” His final project, 7000 Oaks (1982-87), which continued for a year following his death, was the culmination of his environmental activism.

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Joseph Beuys: Teaching and Mature Career (1961-1972)
May
25
6:30 PM18:30
Art History Lecture

Joseph Beuys: Teaching and Mature Career (1961-1972)

Tuesday, May 25, 2021
6:30 PM

In 1961, Beuys was appointed Professor of Monumental Sculpture at the Staatliche Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. He immediately revealed his unorthodox attitudes by abolishing all entry requirements into his classes and by associating closely with the most experimental artists in Düsseldorf. Influenced by the newly formed Fluxus movement, Beuys ventured into performance art. In 1965, his signature work, How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare, launched him into the spotlight of the international art world. The artist’s inscrutable persona was expressed by the use of unusual materials in his sculptures and performances: animal fat, felt, honey, and other organic substances.

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Joseph Beuys: Early Training and Education (1946-1961)
May
18
6:30 PM18:30
Art History Lecture

Joseph Beuys: Early Training and Education (1946-1961)

Tuesday, May 18, 2021
6:30 PM

Upon resuming civilian life, Beuys enrolled in the monumental sculpture program of the Staatliche Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. In 1953, he graduated from the prestigious master class of Ewald Matare. The expressionist sculptor Wilhelm Lehmbruck was a significant influence on the artist, as well as the Italian Renaissance painters, the scientific theories of Galileo, the writings of James Joyce, and the German romantics: Goethe, Novalis, and Schiller. Suffering from post-war trauma and financial hardship, Beuys turned from sculpture to drawing, producing several thousand works, which culminated in a series based upon the novel, Ulysses.

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Joseph Beuys: Childhood and World War II (1921-1945)
May
11
6:30 PM18:30
Art History Lecture

Joseph Beuys: Childhood and World War II (1921-1945)

Tuesday, May 11, 2021
6:30 PM

Born in the northwestern German town of Krefeld, and raised in Kleve, Joseph Beuys was the only child of a Catholic middle-class merchant family. A gifted student, Joseph showed a particular aptitude for drawing and music. His ambition to become a medical doctor was cut short by the outbreak of WWII. Beuys volunteered for the Luftwaffe, and in 1944 his plane was shot down over the Crimean Front in Ukraine. Subsequently deployed to the Western Front, he was captured by British forces and sent to an internment camp, where he spent the final months of the war.

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