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Joseph Beuys: Intuition!

Dimensions of the Early Work of Joseph Beuys, 1946–1961
By Joseph Beuys
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Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Joseph Beuys: Intuition! explores the formative years of Joseph Beuys, spanning his return to Kleve after World War II until his 1961 professorship at Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. This period, described as Beuys' "incubation" phase, reveals the emergence of themes integral to his later work, including biography as artistic material, connections to poetry and romanticism, the natural sciences, philosophy, and socio-economic subjects such as capitalism and labour. The book serves as a catalogue to the 2021 exhibition at Museum Kurhaus Kleve, tracing Beuys' evolution from a "sensitive traditionalist" into a "visionary social sculptor."
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Format: Hardback
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

This insightful study will appeal to enthusiasts of modern art and cultural history, especially those interested in the intersections of biography, science, and social theory within artistic practice.

Book Hero thinking about your next read

When I was starting out, feelings were maybe my point of departure, but by now ideas have crystallized. - Joseph Beuys

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

This book examines the crucial period between Joseph Beuys' return to his hometown of Kleve after World War II at the age of 24 and his appointment as a professor at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf in 1961. During this "incubation" phase, key themes relevant to his future work emerged, which now structure this book: biography as material for artistic forming; Beuys and poetry/romanticism; natural sciences: physics, chemistry, botany, zoology and geography; philosophy/anthropology Steiner; evolution; economics, capitalism, labour, politics.

The aim of Joseph Beuys: Intuition!, along with the 2021 exhibition of the same name at Museum Kurhaus Kleve for which it is the catalogue, is neither to venerate a local saint of Kleve nor to topple an artist from an earlier generation. Instead, it highlights the influences, ideas and caesuras that saw Beuys develop from a "sensitive traditionalist" into a "visionary social sculptor."

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9783958299009

Publisher: Steidl Publishers

Format: Hardback

Date Published: 16 June 2022

Country: Germany

Imprint: Steidl Verlag

Illustration: 120 Illustrations, color

Contributors:

  • Foreword by Harald Kunde
  • Text by Anne-Marie Bonnet
  • Text by Susanne Figner
  • Text by Volker Harlan
  • Text by Karlheinz Koinegg
  • Text by Bettina Paust
  • Text by Petra Richter
  • Text by Wolfgang Zumdick

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Width: 210.0mm

Height: 297.0mm

Weight: 1340g

Pages: 256

Collections

Arts & Culture Joseph Beuys Non-Fiction

About the Author

Widely regarded as one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century, Joseph Beuys (1921-86) was a sculptor, draughtsman, action and installation artist, as well as a teacher, politician and activist. After serving as a soldier in World War II, experiences that would strongly shape his practice, he studied sculpture at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, where he was made professor in 1961. From the early 1960s Beuys dissolved the difference between his biography and art, and increasingly employed his persona and charisma in what he deemed art's ultimate purpose: to radically democratize society. He called for the adoption of his universalist conception of art as a creative, transformative force within politics, science, philosophy and economics. Now as then, Beuys exerts a palpable influence upon artistic and political discourse.

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