Rodin, Beuys

More about the book

Between 1947 and 1964 Joseph Beuys produced a swath of works on paper that, in their style, technique, and formal vocabulary, echo those of Auguste Rodin by way of his teacher and mentor, sculptor, Wilhelm Lehmbruck. Although Beuys's work remains very different from his predecessors', it does take up themes they had pursued, including the idea of the torso as an autonomous, enclosed form and of the fragment as the simplest and most elementary embodiment of immutability. This book sets Beuys's works on paper and sculptures opposite the works on paper and sculptures of Rodin and Lehmbruck, and finds both striking affinities and autonomy.