Tate International Touring Exhibitions
 
Joseph Beuys: Actions, Vitrines, Environments
This exhibition examines three of the highly distinctive ways in which Beuys worked, particularly during the second half of his career. Paraphrasing the mode of classification and presentation in museums, Beuys adopted museum-style vitrines from the late 1960s onwards. He used them to assemble small groups of his works, unique sculptures and multiples, around particular themes, or as receptacles for the residues of particular actions and events. On a grander scale than these mini-ensembles or environments, Beuys from the early 1970s onwards increasingly made larger scale, room-size installations for museums and temporary exhibitions. Finally, Beuys’s actions were recorded in various ways. Initially his best known early actions are now best known in the photographs taken by Ute Klophaus. Later actions, often those involving Beuys lecturing and making blackboard drawings, were recorded aurally, on video, or photographically. This exhibition examines and combines each of these distinctive ways of working, which were so characteristic of Beuys’s approach to art.

Exhibiting at:

Tate Modern (4 February - 2 May 2005)
The Menil Collection, Houston (8 October 2004 - 2 January 2005)

Exhibition organised by The Menil Collection, Houston, in collaboration with Tate Modern, London.

Supported in London by Tate International Council

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