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October 22, 2004 > Arts & Entertainment > New exhibit showcases one man’s diverse, politically-conscious career

New exhibit showcases one man’s diverse, politically-conscious career

By Tina Hinojosa | Thresher staff

In an attempt to make sense of the chaotic world in which we live, many of us turn to creative mediums. Visual art has always been a meaningful outlet and often provides social insight. Enter Joseph Beuys, a German artist most famous for his work in sculptures. Beuys was a teacher and advocate for a range of leftist social causes in post-World War II Europe after he served as a bomber pilot in the war and was eventually captured by the British as a prisoner of war. His harrowing experience in the war inspired him to become politically active in the chaotic aftermath of WWII. Prior to the Menil Collection’s newest exhibition, Joseph Beuys: Actions, Vitrines, Environments, Beuys’ work had only been seen in the United States once before, in an artist retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City. Although Beuys is most often recognized for his sculptures, the Menil Collection’s presentation presents him as an artist who went beyond these parameters to use other forms of visual art as social and political commentary. The exhibit is divided into three themes: Actions/Action Objects, Vitrines, and Environments. Actions/Action Objects indicates an early period in Beuys’ artistic production. As part of the neo-Dadaist artist group Fluxus, Beuys became interested in the idea of destroying the parameters that separate literature, music, visual art, performance and everyday life. Actions features Beuys’ notable performance art. How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare (1965), a performance piece in which Beuys smeared his face with honey and gold leaf and carried a dead hare around a gallery explaining the pictures to him, shows that even a dead animal has a special creative power. One of the first Action Objects works to greet museum visitors is a large silkscreen on polyester sheet with an image of the artist, confidently and deliberately striding forward wearing rugged calf-high boots, a messenger bag and a fedora. Beuys’ face is divided in half by a shadow created by his hat, suggesting a degree of mystery and a strength of character. The handwritten text at the bottom of the work reads: ‘La rivoluzione siamo noi,’ or ‘The revolution is us.’ This image is a poetically appropriate introduction to the exhibition because it urges the audience to walk with Beuys on his path to the future. Beuys does not place himself on a higher intellectual plane, as many artists tend to do. Instead he urges the public to be a part of his creative movement. The exhibit’s next section is called Vitrines. A vitrine is a cabinet with glass walls for displaying art. The most striking piece is entitled Ausfegen, or Sweeping Up. The work stems from the 1972 riots in East Berlin after which Beuys swept the streets and then placed the trash he collected in a vitrine sculpture. While all of the material appears to be rubbish, it is a visual example of the molding of chaos into order. Finally, there is the theme of Environments, works created by Beuys primarily during the 1980s . Environments is the most explicit in meaning among the three themes, as the pieces in this exhibit are comprised of unusual natural objects. The End of the Twentieth Century is one of the last environments Beuys completed before his death in 1986. The installation consists of 31 basalt stones, each with a cavity lined with clay and felt. The image of fresh material in inanimate organic matter hints at the possibility of new life. This impressive survey of Beuys’ work is a landmark opportunity for American art lovers, as the exhibit will move to the Tate Modern in London in the spring.

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