Emerging as an artist in post-war Germany, Beuys occupies a unique position among the conceptual and participatory art movements of that era. With the proposition that an artwork’s material could be an active agent, rather than merely an aesthetic surface,and by exploring immaterial forces such as heat, energy and imagination, Beuys profoundly expanded the idea of what sculpture can be – dissolving the boundaries between art, science, social theory and politics. Marked by the experience of war and in response to a post-war society of repression, he attributed an essential function to art in the renewal of society: capable of healing collective wounds, unleashing creative potential and catalysing real political change.
Watch Jane Bhoyroo, Principal Keeper at Leeds Art Gallery, discuss the exhibition
Badewanne (Bathtub), 1961–85, cast 1987
Bronze, lead and copper, 1000 kg
90 x 165 x 340 cm (35.43 x 64.96 x 133.86 in)
The bathtubs explore warmth as a sculptural material – an inherently paradoxical pursuit given its formless nature. The first, 28cm-long bronze iteration, Mammoth’s Tooth, Framed (1961), would later be recast to form part of the ensemble Bathtub for a Heroine (1950/1961/1984). Here, it is combined with an electric immersion heater, whose cables protrude outwards into space as though to evoke the necessity of connection, as well as a vertical element representing the heroine. In this dense sculptural constellation, the mammoth tooth becomes the sculptural core, anchoring the work in deep evolutionary time, while the heroine embodies transformative human agency.
Mammutzahn eingefaßt (Mammoth’s Tooth, Framed), 1961
Natural tooth, copper and brass
9 x 25.1 x 14 cm (3.54 x 9.88 x 5.51 in)
Badewanne für eine Heldin (Bathtub for a Heroine), 1950/1961/1984
Bronze, lead piece and immersion heater
Bathtub: 9 x 29.5 x 14 cm (3.54 x 11.61 x 5.51 in)
Heroine: 31.5 x 9 x 8.5 cm (12.4 x 3.54 x 3.35 in)
Ed. of 7 +1 AP
Bronze
20.8 x 54 x 25 cm (8.19 x 21.26 x 9.84 in)
Ed. of 6 + 2 AP
20 x 29 cm (7.87 x 11.42 in)
Joseph Beuys was born in 1921 in Krefeld, Germany. In 1961 he was appointed professor of monumental sculpture at the Düsseldorf Art Academy, where he became an inspiring and charismatic figure for an emerging generation of German artists. During this period, he became a member of the newly founded Fluxus Group, an international network of artists from nearby Wuppertal. In the 1970s, his activities became explicitly politicised. He founded the Free International University (FIU) for Creativity and Interdisciplinary Research, as well as the Organisation for Direct Democracy through Referendum, and later became involved with the German Green Party. His monumental retrospective at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York in 1979 established Beuys's international reputation. Since the artist's death in 1986, his work has been shown in numerous museum exhibitions around the world, including at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Tate Modern, London; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf; Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin; and the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh. A varied programme of exhibitions, performances, lectures and events marked the 100th anniversary of the artist's birth in 2021.
