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Label Text Beuys saw art as inseparable from his controversial teaching and political beliefs, and attempted a kind of “social sculpture” that involved action and audience participation. Much of his work was based in performance, including lectures. In the 1960s, Beuys began preserving blackboards as documents of these events as well as a finished work of art. This board records a lecture give at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design in 1974, during Beuys’ first tour of America. The quickly made chalk lines capture the spontaneous energy of Beuys’ speech, and feature iconography related to his ideas about the role of art in the larger sphere of social, political, and environmental issues.
Exhibition History"Thinking is Form: The Drawings of Joseph Beuys," Philadelphia Museum of Art, March 15-May 17, 1992, (circulated to: The Museum of Contemporary Art, L.A., June 14-Aug. 23, 1992; The Art Institute of Chicago, Sept. 20 - Dec. 6, 1992; The Museum of Modern Art, N.Y., Feb. 19, 1992-May 4, 1993)

"Warhol/Beuys/Polke," Milwaukee Art Musuem, June 19 - Nov. 15, 1987, (Did not travel to Houston)

"Director's Choice," thirty-four works of art purchased with the Director's Discretionary Fund, 1973-1982 - a gift to the Des Moines Art Center from the Gardner and Florence Call Cowles Foundation, Des Moines Art Center, Sept. 13 - Nov. 13, 1983
Published ReferencesDES MOINES ART CENTER: SELECTED PAINTINGS, SCULPTURES AND WORKS ON PAPER, Des Moines Art Center, 1985, ref. p.35, b/w ill. p.36

Ann Tempkin and Bernice Rose, THINKING IS FORM: THE DRAWINGS OF JOSEPH BEUYS, exhibition catalogue, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1993

AN UNCOMMON VISION: THE DES MOINES ART CENTER, Des Moines Art Center, 1998, ref. p.56, color ill. p.57

Russell Bowman, WARHOL/BEUYS/POLKE, Burton and Mayer, Inc., Milwaukee, WI, 1987, b/w ill. p.77

"Director's Choice," Thirty-four works of art purchased with the Director's Discretionary Fund, 1973-1982, Des Moines Art Center, Sept. 13 - Nov. 13, 1983, b/w cat. ill.
DimensionsFrame (plexi): 52 1/4 × 100 1/4 × 2 1/4 in. (132.7 × 254.6 × 5.7 cm)
Other (blackboard): 48 × 95 in. (121.9 × 241.3 cm)
Accession Number 1974.20
Classificationspainting
CopyrightARS
SignedJoseph Beuys Minneapolis 17.1.74 (verso l,l on cardboard)
ProvenanceArtist. (Dayton's Gallery 12, Minneapolis); Des Moines Art Center [purchased from the previous, 1974]

Images (1)

Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines

Audio (2)

Energie Plan for the Westman
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Joseph Beuys
1969-1970
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Richard Long
1996
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John Koch
date unknown
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Tsugouharu Foujita
ca. 1921
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Marsden Hartley
1940
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Arthur B. Davies
date unknown
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Anonymous
17th century
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Gustav Klimt
1895
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Keith Haring
1980-1982