17 April – 16 June 2018

'In a time in which art is commodified and in some sense made into a trophy, where it’s institutionalised and intellectualised, the urgency of Beuys saying to us we are all artists and we are all together making the world for better or for worse, is a critical message.’

Watch curator Norman Rosenthal and artist Antony Gormley discuss Joseph Beuys: Utopia at the Stag Monuments, the most important UK exhibition of Beuys’ work in over a decade, which was on view at Thaddaeus Ropac from 17 April to 16 June 2018. Rosenthal and Gormley offered their insights into the works and the artist himself.

Joseph Beuys famously declared 'every man is an artist'. He believed in the revolutionary power of art to unlock the potential for creativity in everyone and, by extension, to transform society. His utopian vision of social transformation through individual creativity and self-determination was expressed through his art, but also through Actions, lectures and sustained political activism.  'Here is somebody who saw a world disintegrate because of ideology and wanted to find a deeper source of truth than appearances.'