JOSEPH BEUYS (1921-1986)

Details

JOSEPH BEUYS (1921-1986)

Telephone S E/Telephone S R

signed and stamped with number Joseph Beuys No. 23/24 on a paper label affixed to the string--gouache on two tin cans and string
height of tin cans: 4¾in. (12cm.)
length of string: 69½in. (176.5cm.)

Executed in 1974. This is number twenty-three from an edition of twenty-four and VI artist's proofs published by Verlag Schellmann & Klüser.

Provenance

Gallery Schoenewald & Beuse

Literature

ed. J. Schellman, Joseph Beuys Multiples: A Catalogue Raisonné of Multiples and Prints 1965-1985, Munich and New York 1985, no. 123 (illustration of another example)

Lot Essay

'With the two tin cans I took the most child-like form of communication and characterized them with a positive and negative pole. That underlines that communication--the connection between individuals--is important, and expresses through that that in the universal sense communication has been there. The form of the tin has to be extended since it is only then that the thing takes on a meaning. The tins themselves cannot offer that. They indicate merely a simple elementary procedure: the concept of transmitter and receiver...That means two stations, whether they are individuals or groups of people that are connected. A connection string and a positive and negative pole and the two begin to exchange information...' (J. Schellmann, Joseph Beuys Multiples, Catalogue Raisonné of Multiples and Prints 1965-1985, Munich and New York 1985)