Joseph Beuys Books

An attempt to break through the mass of obscurantist writing about Joseph Beuys to introduce him in a simple and clear manner, through his individual drawings, used here as the basis for discussions of his life, art and ideas.

The early drawings and watercolors of Joseph Beuys are counted among the treasures of international public and private collections. They are works of the highest artistic sensitivity, their filigree aesthetics as impressive as their conceptual and emotional depth. For Beuys, working on paper had an existential character. Drawing and painting with watercolors was a form of exploring a spiritual world of images which provided him with the fundamental relationships and terms for his later work as a politically active artist. To illustrate the entire wealth of Beuys’ language of images, we have decided to combine two separately published volumes of watercolors (1989) and drawings (1992). Together they will provide a handy guide to Beuys’ complex œuvre for all future Beuys exhibitions.

Accompanying the most important UK exhibition of Joseph Beuys' (1921-86) work in over a decade, this comprehensive publication traces the development of the artist's practice from his early, rarely seen works to his conceptual environments. At the heart of this exhibition stands Stag Monuments, exhibited whole for the first time since its creation.

On Beuys' sculptural indictment of economic value A sumptuous room in the Museum of Fine Arts in Ghent in 1980: on its wall hang Flemish Old Master paintings, gleaming in their gilt frames; yet in the middle of the room stand industrial metal shelves, sparsely stocked with packets of everyday perishable products: salt, flour, olives and peas. Each packet is signed by Joseph Beuys and labeled with "1 economic value." This was Beuys' compelling installation Wirtschaftswerte (Economic Values), a declaration that culture had once and for all been reduced to economic property. The products selected were notably from the German Democratic Republic, heightening disparities between West and East, capitalism and socialism, high and low culture, the mundane and the luxurious. Das Wirtschaftswertprinzip / The Principle of Economic Value documents the original installation, which Beuys later recreated elsewhere and expanded in a series of multiples. Originally published in 1990, the book has now been redesigned by Klaus Staeck and Gerhard Steidl.

Kassel, documenta 1977. A pump driven by two strong motors forces two tons of honey over a 17-meter-high pipe into a network of tubes that traverses the rooms of the Fridericianum Museum. This was the core of Joseph Beuys' “Free International University” which he brought to life at documenta 6. Around his Honeypump in the Workplace Beuys created events that expanded his notion of art and starkly differentiated it from tradition. For Beuys, “workplace” meant talks, speeches, workgroup discussions and citizens' action committees. For 100 days he tirelessly expressed his ideas on how art and society must necessarily change, filling numerous blackboards with texts, diagrams and musical scores. On 28 June 1977 Beuys invited Klaus Staeck and Gerhard Steidl to join him in servicing and maintaining his honeypump, which was carefully documented in the photographs of this book, first published in 1997 and now re-conceived by Staeck and Steidl

Tracing artists' increasing use of their bodies as subject and actual material of their artworks, this title charts the rise of new forms of expression such as Body Art, Happenings, Performance and Live Art.

A selection of artworks by international artists dealing with the food theme and all its implications. This volume accompanies the international traveling exhibition FOOD, that focuses on the preservation of Earth and food choices, as well as the effects of climate change, the poisoning of agricultural products, the food distribution gap, famine, and other related concerns.