Lot Essay
Essential to the understanding of Joseph Beuys' life and works is an understanding of Beuys' far reaching desire to communicate, and achieve unity in art and life.
Beuys sought in his life and work to restore the relationship between nature, the cosmos, intellect and the spirit. He challenged the contemporary perception of reality with a dialectical language of natural-mythical symbols, parascientific actions, and with objects and sculpture that conveyed his pursuit of a balance of art, life, and progress towards humanity.
Beuys differentiated between two types of drawings. One, an aesthetic object with a life of its own, and the other, a means of beginning a discussion. Beuys called the activity leading to his blackboard drawings, "blackboard work," but not in the traditional sense of a classroom discussion. For Beuys, the blackboard provided a means to continue a thought into drawing. This usually happened in Beuys' performances or lectures, and the audience often participted in this process. The process of speaking and drawing became parallel; the images and words both function as "language." Beuys called the blackboards "monuments" of his "method," and they became a powerful medium in his work.
These two blackboards were used by Beuys at the Academy of Fine Arts in Hamburg where he was a guest professor during the winter semester of 1974-1975. Board I can be described as "evolution." It shows human evolution and establishes a connection to man's practical faculties. The words "Leben" [Life] and "Synthesis" are projected in a strong authoritative line, emphasizing their relationship to the image of the cube which represents creativity. The water vessel on the left questions "autonomous" sculpture and confronts a plant, an animal and a human, on whose figure is inscribed "soul".
Beuys describes a system through loosely joined words, signs and diagrams which correspond to each other. "Logos" and "Geist" [spirit] suggest divine and human capabilities. "Sprache" [language], "Götter" [gods], "Leben" [life] and "Energie" [energy] are joined by an equal sign suggesting language and energy as a form of expression that mutually link the mythical [gods] with humanity. The word "Zeitwende" [timechange] is juxtaposed with the letters "franz.R" [French Revolution] and, "Bürgerl.R" [Bourgeois Revolution], suggesting that human and political evolution are historically intertwined.
The words, signs, drawings and symbols of Board I point to the second blackboard and establish a connection between the signs on both boards. Board II is inscribed on the upper center with the word "Aktion" [action]. Beuys once said, "So here is energy. It is completely undirected. It is the fat you take out of a package and throw on the ground..." (F.J. Verspohl, Joseph Beuys, Mönchengladbach 1988, n.n.). There is a corner of fat drawn on the right edge representing a geometric concept of space, which is the result of the above action: energy, movement and finally, the form.
The symbols of the hammer, the mass of fat, the bow, the eye and the tetrahedron are already familiar in the vocabulary of the artist. In their entirety, the symbols, words and signs create an
"Energiekontext" [energy context] which is thematized on the blackboard by the central phrase "Wärmecharakter" [warmth-character]. This assemblage of signs and symbols creates a context for Beuys to address the entire structure of will, emotion and thinking.
Beuys sought in his life and work to restore the relationship between nature, the cosmos, intellect and the spirit. He challenged the contemporary perception of reality with a dialectical language of natural-mythical symbols, parascientific actions, and with objects and sculpture that conveyed his pursuit of a balance of art, life, and progress towards humanity.
Beuys differentiated between two types of drawings. One, an aesthetic object with a life of its own, and the other, a means of beginning a discussion. Beuys called the activity leading to his blackboard drawings, "blackboard work," but not in the traditional sense of a classroom discussion. For Beuys, the blackboard provided a means to continue a thought into drawing. This usually happened in Beuys' performances or lectures, and the audience often participted in this process. The process of speaking and drawing became parallel; the images and words both function as "language." Beuys called the blackboards "monuments" of his "method," and they became a powerful medium in his work.
These two blackboards were used by Beuys at the Academy of Fine Arts in Hamburg where he was a guest professor during the winter semester of 1974-1975. Board I can be described as "evolution." It shows human evolution and establishes a connection to man's practical faculties. The words "Leben" [Life] and "Synthesis" are projected in a strong authoritative line, emphasizing their relationship to the image of the cube which represents creativity. The water vessel on the left questions "autonomous" sculpture and confronts a plant, an animal and a human, on whose figure is inscribed "soul".
Beuys describes a system through loosely joined words, signs and diagrams which correspond to each other. "Logos" and "Geist" [spirit] suggest divine and human capabilities. "Sprache" [language], "Götter" [gods], "Leben" [life] and "Energie" [energy] are joined by an equal sign suggesting language and energy as a form of expression that mutually link the mythical [gods] with humanity. The word "Zeitwende" [timechange] is juxtaposed with the letters "franz.R" [French Revolution] and, "Bürgerl.R" [Bourgeois Revolution], suggesting that human and political evolution are historically intertwined.
The words, signs, drawings and symbols of Board I point to the second blackboard and establish a connection between the signs on both boards. Board II is inscribed on the upper center with the word "Aktion" [action]. Beuys once said, "So here is energy. It is completely undirected. It is the fat you take out of a package and throw on the ground..." (F.J. Verspohl, Joseph Beuys, Mönchengladbach 1988, n.n.). There is a corner of fat drawn on the right edge representing a geometric concept of space, which is the result of the above action: energy, movement and finally, the form.
The symbols of the hammer, the mass of fat, the bow, the eye and the tetrahedron are already familiar in the vocabulary of the artist. In their entirety, the symbols, words and signs create an
"Energiekontext" [energy context] which is thematized on the blackboard by the central phrase "Wärmecharakter" [warmth-character]. This assemblage of signs and symbols creates a context for Beuys to address the entire structure of will, emotion and thinking.