1921-1986

An architect, graphic, painter, practitioner and theorist in art - Joseph Beuys is one of the most important artists of the 20th century. During his life he became a myth thanks to leather and jackets and was a pioneer of contemporary art. At his works one stands as an ox at the mountain. And this metaphor fits here very well. Animals appear in a self-developing mythology of the art stars, like, for example, in the environment “Lightning with Stag in Its Glare”, which has been installed in the Museum of Modern Arts MMMK in Frankfurt on Main. 39 pieces cast metal pieces of a clay object are arranged in the architectonic entity in the room, prepared for the work installation. In significant places there lie dark heaps that symbolize the amorphous prehistoric animals. Among others there is a six meter high wedged form, which narrows up to the top and symbolizes the strike of lightning. The representation of a deer cast from an old ironing board that lies on two parts of a cudgel, sticks out through a silver mat glossy surface. A kind of creation scene? Beuys commented that in general consciousness a deer is a part of nature and asked a following question: “How would nature react when there appears a nature of future, one created by people?” We write about the eighties. Beuys’ visual observations go break the borders of the artistic world. With a figure of a deer, which also often appears in his drawings, the artist creates a world of expression possibilities and sets the historical references. But his works have nothing in common with the nature scenes in German genre painting which portray roaring deer at the background of a green, thick forest, a favorite motif for a German living room. It is impossibly difficult to understand sensitive magical art of Beys. When speaking about his words you have to feel rather than understand. But the same is about the art. Hand signed graphic works of Beys are rare and demanded: real investment objects.