From On the River
"To make people free is the aim of art, therefore art for me is the science of freedom." -Joseph Beuys
A Short Synopsis:
Interesting Biographical Information:
German born Joseph Beuys originally wanted to go into medicine. In 1940 his life took a turn when he volenteered for the army to avoid the draft. By 1945 he had been wounded serval times and had stayed for several months as a british prisoner of war.
After this he abandoned medicine and graduated from art school in 1952. By the age of 40 he was hired as a professor at his university. Skip forward to 1972 he was dimissed from his position over his insistence that admission to the art school be open to anyone who wished to study there. As much of his time and energy went into teaching he remained known for his teaching as well has his artistic methods.
His philosophy:
"Everyone is an artist" is something he often said because he belived that everyone can and must be creative in someway. "Social sculpture" was a key phrase for him because it involved his passion of art as a conscious act of shaping, of bringing some aspect of the environment--whether the political system, the economy, or a classroom--from a chaotic state into a state of form, or structure. Furthur, he believed art was the only revolutionary force, and coming from a war veteran this is powerful. Creativity=Captial is his shorthand for creativty is the new form of currency.
Randoms:
When he first came to the US he was a widely known artist, but here he refused to bring his art to exhibit and instead put together an exhibition of ideas in a lecture tour.
He was a founding member of the Green Party.
His art:
He used ritualized movement and sound, and materials such as fat, felt, earth, honey, blood, and even dead animals. He made multiples. He did some performance art which he called "actions".
