Joseph Beuys

1921–1986

In Tate Modern

Prints and Drawings Rooms

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Biography

Joseph Beuys ( BOYSS, German: [ˈjoːzɛf ˈbɔʏs]; 12 May 1921 – 23 January 1986) was a German Fluxus, happening, and performance artist as well as a painter, sculptor, medallist, installation artist, graphic artist, art theorist, and pedagogue.

His extensive work is grounded in concepts of humanism, social philosophy and anthroposophy; it culminates in his "extended definition of art" and the idea of social sculpture as a gesamtkunstwerk, for which he claimed a creative, participatory role in shaping society and politics. His career was characterized by open public debates on a very wide range of subjects including political, environmental, social and long term cultural trends. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential artists of the second half of the 20th century.

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Artworks

Left Right

Joseph Beuys 7000 Oak Trees

1982
Joseph Beuys Felt Suit

1970
Joseph Beuys The End of the Twentieth Century

1983–5

On display at Tate Modern part of Artist and Society
Joseph Beuys Coyote

date not known
Joseph Beuys Joseph Beuys. Fettstuhl

1984
Joseph Beuys Felt Suit

1970

On display at Tate Liverpool part of Constellations
Joseph Beuys Joseph Beuys. Every Man is An Artist

1978
Joseph Beuys Fat Chair

1964–85

See all 578

Artist as subject

Left Right

Joseph Beuys Coyote

date not known
Joseph Beuys Joseph Beuys. Every Man is An Artist

1978
Joseph Beuys We Won’t Do It without the Rose, Because We Can No Longer Think

1972
Joseph Beuys La Rivoluzione Siamo Noi

1972
Joseph Beuys Joseph Beuys: I Like America and America Likes Me (Documentation of a Performance at the René Block Gallery, New York, May ‘74), Richard Demarco Gallery, Edinburgh

1974
Andy Warhol Andy Warhol / Joseph Beuys

1980
Joseph Beuys Joseph Beuys: I like America and America likes Me. René Block Gallery, New York

1974
Joseph Beuys We Are the Revolution

1972
Joseph Beuys Andy Warhol. Joseph Beuys, Lucio Amelio [Gallery], Naples

1980

See all 196

Film and audio

Katie Guggenheim Recordings - Joseph Beuys

Working with six actors and using published interviews as scripts, artist Katie Guggenheim re-staged conversations with some of the twentieth …

Features

Left Right

Tate Etc

Now is for ever, again: The everyday

Francesco Bonami

From Gabriel Orozco’s exhibition of yoghurt pot lids to Rirkrit Tiravanija’s transformation of a gallery into a kitchen to serve …
Tate Etc

Opinion: Art and Democracy

John-Paul Stonard

A response to Ai Weiwei's quotation on art's relation to democracy
Art Term

Conceptual art

Conceptual art is art for which the idea (or concept) behind the work is more important than the finished art …
Art Term

Vitrine

A large, glass cabinet used for displaying art objects
Art Term

Iconography

The iconography of an artwork is the imagery within it
Art Term

Performance art

Artworks that are created through actions performed by the artist or other participants, which may be live or recorded, spontaneous …
Art Term

Social sculpture

Social sculpture is a theory developed by the artist Joseph Beuys in the 1970s based on the concept that everything …
Art Term

Ephemeral art

Ephemeral art is art that only lasts for a short amount of time
Art Term

Environmental art

Environmental art is art that addresses social and political issues relating to the natural and urban environment
Art Term

Fluxus

Fluxus is an international avant-garde collective or network of artists and composers founded in the1960s and still continuing today