Joseph Beuys
Joseph Beuys | |
|---|---|
Offset poster for Beuys's 1974 US lecture-series "Energy Plan for the Western Man", Ronald Feldman Gallery | |
| Born | Joseph Heinrich Beuys 12 May 1921 |
| Died | 23 January 1986 (aged 64) |
| Education | Kunstakademie Düsseldorf |
| Known for | Performance, sculpture, visual art, sociophilosophy, theory of art |
| Notable work | How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare (1965) Fettecke (1965) |
| Spouse |
Eva Wurmbach
(m. 1959) |
| Children | 2 |
| Signature | |
Joseph Heinrich Beuys (/bɔɪs/ BOYSS; German: [ˈjoːzɛf ˈbɔʏs]; 12 May 1921 – 23 January 1986) was a German artist, teacher, performance artist, and art theorist whose work reflected concepts of humanism and sociology. With Heinrich Böll, Johannes Stüttgen, Caroline Tisdall, Robert McDowell, and Enrico Wolleb, Beuys created the Free International University for Creativity & Interdisciplinary Research (FIU). Through his talks and performances, he also formed The Party for Animals and The Organisation for Direct Democracy. He was a member of a Dadaist art movement Fluxus and singularly inspirational in developing of Performance Art, called Kunst Aktionen, alongside Wiener Aktionismus that Allan Kaprow and Carolee Schneemann termed Art Happenings.
According to his biographer Reinhard Ermen, he can be seen as the “ideal antagonist” of Andy Warhol..
Beuys was professor at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf from 1961 until 1972. He was a founding member and life-long supporter of the German Green Party.