New York 11-1-1974, Chicago 15-1-1974, Minneapolis 17-1-19

In January 1974, Joseph Beuys made his first journey in the United States, when he made an exhibition at the Ronald Feldman Gallery in New York and three lecture/demonstrations in New York, Chicago, and Minneapolis. On these occasions, he developed a lecture he had introduced in an earlier European lecture tour on the theme of the Energy Plan for Western Man, a utopian vision with spiritual foundations that sought an alternative to the major structures of capitalism. It was an extension of Beuys's theories of Social Sculpture and the integration of art and political action. Beuys said: "Here my idea is to declare that art is the only possibility for evolution, the only possibility to change the situation of the world. But you have to enlarge the idea of art to include the whole creativity. And if you do that, it follows logically that every living being is an artist...."
Beuys created complex diagrams on blackboards during his lectures; these were sought by collectors, although Beuys disapproved of their sale. He preferred to erase each board with a blackboard eraser such as the ones here rather than sell them. A number of blackboards were retained, however, at the end of each lecture; some are in museum collections. These used erasers are therefore both relics of the performances and indicators of the intinerary of his American journey.