
The Essential Joseph Beuys
Alain Borer(Author)
Lothar Schirmer(Editor)
Thames & Hudson Ltd (Publisher)
Published on 27. January 1997
Book
Hardback
240 pages
978-0-500-09267-5 (ISBN)
Description
Subject to passionate controversy during his lifetime, the work of Joseph Beuys is now considered one of the most significant and influential contributions to twentieth-century fine arts. This book provides a survey of Beuys's oeuvre, which he viewed as part of a larger, philosophically based practice emphasising direct democracy, free access to education and the restructuring of society to meet ecological requirements. A total of 152 works from Beuys's many fields of activity - drawings and watercolours, prints and multiples, sculpture and objects, spaces and actions - are arranged in chronological order, demonstrating the artist's formal versatility, creative richness and conceptual depth. The peculiar poetry of the materials Beuys used - felt, grease, honey, wax, copper and sulfur - emerges along with the gentle melancholy suffusing the work of this sensitive agent provocateur. Alain Borer analyses Beuys's motivation with special reference to the artist's written and spoken statements. The book is an informed introduction to the artistic work and conceptual world of Joseph Beuys, for anyone interested in art.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Illustrations
83 Illustrations, black and white; 77 Illustrations, color
Dimensions
Height: 317 mm
Width: 245 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
1756 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-500-09267-5 (9780500092675)
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Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Alain Borer is a French poet and writer. He has been a Professor at l'Ecole superieure des beaux-arts de Tours since 1979, and a Visting Professor at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, since 2005.
Content
Editor's Foreword * Alain Borer: A Lament for Joseph Beuys * Plates * Editorial Notes to the Plates * I. Education and Invention: Cleves / Duesseldorf, 1945-1960 * II. The Academy, Duesseldorf, 1961-1972 * III. After the Academy: Berlin / Kassel / London / New York / Paris / Venice, 1973-1985 * Notes to the Captions