Joseph Beuys

Joseph Beuys was a performing artist who was most famous for his public performances. Along with his performing arts, Beuys also produced sculptures, prints, posters, and thousands of drawings in his lifetime. Beuys was encouraged to become an artist after he returned home from World War II. He gathered about 327 drawings between the 1940’s and 50’s and created a book which was entitled “The Secret Block for a Person in Ireland”. The title draws reference to his inspiration of James Joyce was an Irish expatriate writer, widely considered to be one of the most influential writers of the 20th century. Through his involvement with Fluxus, Bueys pushed the boundaries of art. He took a different focus than the Fluxus group who were interested in the radical Dada. Bueys had a different message “The Silence of Marcel Duchamp is Overrated” with his practical focus of Duchamp and the Readymade. This created the primary aspect of controversy that surrounded Bueys in his work. Beuys was motivated by a utopian belief in the power of universal human creativity and was confident in the potential for art to bring about revolutionary change.