Designer Analysis - Beuys, Josef

Beuys, Josef

Josef Beuys is regarded as one of the most influential artist of the late twentieth century, born in 1921 in Germany, a passionate political and social activist and educator. A philosophic man; he was an optimistic believer in positive social change. Art, available to all, could be a social engine, which would power a revolutionary change. He believed that: "Everyone is an artist." Beuys, Josef

His work was focused on concepts of humanism and social philosophy; centred on social ideas of anthroposophy, work by Rudolf Steiner who Josef was an advocate. Steiner’s belief was that, a spiritual movement could free the individual from any external authority and this spiritual world could be accessed directly from a sensory experience of inner development. Beuys then interpreted this with his own idea of Social Sculpture. He wanted to shape society and politics.

Social Sculpture was Beuys’s term to illustrate art's potential to transform society. Society, as a whole, was to be regarded as one great work of art (Gesamtkunstwerk), to which each person can contribute creatively.

His vast body of art referred to as social sculpture then took shape in many forms including: performance, drawing, print-making, sculpture and installation; using language, thought, action, and object. They were considered his ‘actions’ from which he encouraged audiences to incorporate the political and social messages into their everyday lives.

He once said: “It was simply impossible for human beings to bring their creative intention into the world any other way than through action." Beuys, Josef Align that with he belief of all of us as artists leads us to his belief for his own artistic revolution.

Beuys, Josef
Entwurf für ein FilzenvironmentModel for a Felt Environment

The Sculpture (pictured above), Model for a Felt Environment, has neat rolls of grey felt sitting on painted wood inside a vitrine, as suggest by the title is intended as a model for an ‘environment’.

Vitrines are normally used as display cases commonly found in museums to present objects which are significant for example because of their value or historical influence. Beuys use of common object in this scenario allows the audience to question their signification from when Beuys can answer philosophically.

Beuys, Josef
felt suit

The sculpture is a stitched brown suit (jacket and trousers) lengthen at the arms and legs, made from felt, suspended from a wooden hanger. It is a replica of a suit Beuys wore to an anti-Vietnam event in 1971 conducted by the group Fluxus, which Beuys was a passionate member.

The suit can be seen as an icon of safety and a medium of shelter. A suit in reality can give humans physical warmth in a practical sense. However Beuys goes on to explain this as: ‘Not even physical warmth is meant... Actually I meant a completely different kind of warmth, namely spiritual or evolutionary warmth or the beginning of an evolution’ Therefore using the art as a social sculpture, a medium for social and political converse.

He wore to suit in order to keep warm during his protest against war, an obviously devastating life taken affair. On that day in 1971 the suit was more then warm protective clothing for Beuys; if the protest was successful, it is a symbol of life and protection for the civilians that would have entered battle I Vietnam.

Beuys choice or action to reproduce the suit and promote a common place object as art is an exciting, energetic, medium as the new meaning becomes powerful.

There are connotations of the suits worn by prisoners, in particular those in Nazi concentration camps. This imprisonment link can then acts as a symbol of the isolation of human beings. Although isolated, I like the idea: the prisoners although striped bare of so much, physically and emotionally, they still have or have been given this suits to keep them warm. And Beuys promotion against war may give them hope, for those wrongly imprisoned, that justice is still being fort for. A though they can be reminded of every time they feel the snugness of the suit.

He worked with felt because he believed them to be of universal relevance to the human struggle for survival. Felt itself is both insulating, protective within it’s properties making it an ideal choice to suit the overall themes. Below are two more examples of Beuys work to show the relevance of using felt as a material:

Beuys, Josef

Plight

Felt rolls comprise to produce the work ‘Plight’ meaning environment. The walls and ceiling are covered completely with the rolls to create a stifling atmosphere.

Beuys, Josef

The Chief

Beuys produced a performance or an ‘action’ when reffering to his Social Sculpture concepts, called ‘The Chief’. The artist was wrapped in a felt blanket, during the nine hour performance he has to fighting claustrophobia by lying practically still, as if in a coffin.

The use of felt is important because, as a material, its properties mean it can both insulates and absorbs. This allows the artist to represent both protection and a sense of constriction or almost suffocation.

It is believed a childhood interest in the natural sciences gave Beuys his desire to explore and experiment with the properties of materials. As well as felt he regularly worked with animal fat copper and wax believing them to be of universal relevance to the human struggle for survival because they can be seen as proposing: insulating, conductive, protective, transmitting and transforming properties.