Joseph Beuys: Plakate. Posters
Prestel Publishing
In the realm of art, Joseph Beuys was active in a range of disciplines from sculpting, performance, activist and installation art via graphics to him lecturing about art theory in an educational context, with his emissions often being interpreted to be of controversial nature. Beuys himself perceived his oeuvre to resemble a roadmap for the improvement of the human experience at large – an approach and philosophy that is specifically represented in his poster art, which Prestel Publishing’s tome on the matter focusses on.
The carefully curated and opulently illustrated compilation of Beuys’ poster art sheds light on how he shaped his tenet to subversively contribute to the change of Western culture and its implications with the ultimate aim to arrive in a place dominated by a peaceful, democratic and creative outlook.
What pervades the posters and constitutes the common denominator is Beuys’ idiosyncratic way of aligning life and art inextricably along with the notion that art should be a democratic endeavour and that everyone is an artist.
While his early posters focus on the announcement of his endeavours, the book shows the evolution to posters becoming a vehicle for Beuys to communicate his political and philosophical viewpoints, at times aligned with political parties he was associated with.
With its full page illustrations and accompanying commentary and contextualised essays, the book expertly exemplifies the influence Beuys exerted on the post-war artworld at large.
