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“Think or leave!” – Beuys and his students: an exhibition at Sabanci Museum

Yazan: HaberVs

Karen Inge Schewina He is known for using fat and felt for his sculptures and performances, his political activity for the Green Party in Germany, the establishment of the “Free International University” and his charismatic speeches and lectures at the art academy in Düsseldorf.Curated by Friedhelm Hütte, Global Head of Art, Deutsche Bank, and art […]

Karen Inge Schewina

He is known for using fat and felt for his sculptures and performances, his political activity for the Green Party in Germany, the establishment of the “Free International University” and his charismatic speeches and lectures at the art academy in Düsseldorf.
Curated by Friedhelm Hütte, Global Head of Art, Deutsche Bank, and art critic Ahu Antmen, On the occasion of the 100th year of Deutsche Bank’s presence in Turkey, Sabancı University Sakıp Sabancı Museum (SSM) presents an exhibition entitled “Joseph Beuys and His Students – Works from the Deutsche Bank Collection” from 9 September until 1 November 2009. It’s the first time after Beuys´ death in 1986 that his works on paper are shown together with prints, drawings and photographs done and taken by some of his most important students as
Peter Angermann, Felix Droese, Imi Giese, Jörg Immendorff, Anselm Kiefer, Imi Knoebel, Blinky Palermo, Katharina Sieverding and Norbert Tadeusz.

Beuys himself considered his teaching his “greatest work of art”. He believed in the creative potential every human being possesses, for him, every person was an artist, every action a work of art. “Art alone makes life possible,” he said in an interview “without art man is inconceivable in physiological terms.” Art was not supposed to be separated from life or presented in elite institutions, but the revolutionary power of art should transform society into a better place for everyone to live in. It may not have been his goal to produce eternal works; he wanted to make people think about their way of living and their option to take an active part in forming the so-called “social sculpture”.
The exhibition shows in more than 300 examples how his students found to a way of expressing their feelings and perceptions of the world around them, being supported and guided by the maybe most influential German artist after World War II. Along with Beuys´ drafts and images on paper, the visitor will encounter the 11 pieces of the cycle “Café Deutschland” by Jörg Immendorf, who considered art as a catalyst for social change, as well as Felix Drose´s papercuts, reflecting recent political themes and Katharina Sieverding´s experiments with photography. Put in the same room or at least on the same floor, Blinky Palermo´s drawings with silkscreen on wrapping paper and Imi Knoebel´s large scale frame installation can be seen, together with Peter Angemann´s more figurative paintings on wallpaper.
Beuys himself depicted from his earliest drawings on animals as elk, stag, goat, swan, fox or hare as bearers of psychic and spiritual forces, as well as the shaman as an important figure to get in touch with the sacred. In “Eurasian Staff”, one of his performances shown on a big screen, the visitor is allowed to witness a complex ritual. Wearing one iron and one felt shoe, ostensibly to traverse the continent, Beuys installs four staffs in four corners of a room, which symbolize East and West, North and South. His goal was to reunite the continents, as he was convinced that, with the help of art, mankind would be able to overcome prejudices and misunderstanding, reaching the Eden – like state again. He seems himself as a healer, bringing Eastern transcendentalism and Western rationalism together.
Small tables at the wall provide the visitor with the necessary information about the artist´s background and most important themes.
The aim of the exhibition is not to give a detailed explanation of every picture or photo. Quoting Beuys himself, one of the signs states: “Art is not there to provide knowledge in direct ways.” It produces deepened perceptions of experience. If the aim was simply to understand, there was no need for art”.
His work is rich in allusions, some of them referring to Celtic origins of European culture. The only sculpture displayed in the exhibition is the “Mountain King”, lying on the floor, casted in bronze. There is an angle from which, though legless and armless, he still seems to have his head, topped by a crown. Changing the perspective only for an inch, the visitor realizes that it is a severed head. ”Whether he is a real physical king or an imaginary one is of no consequence,” Beuys said in 1978. ”What is of interest is that he consists of two separate parts”. ”Characteristic of the head,” Beuys went on, ”is a turning element, like a compass, a gyroscope or a clock face that suggests a time factor. What interested me was the psychology embedded in the physiology, and the elements of time, positive and negative.”

The broad scope of the collection though offers the unique chance to achieve a general understanding of Beuys´ environment and the recent development of contemporary art in Germany. Furthermore, Sakıp Sabanci Director Dr. Nazan Ölçer considers “the confluence of this exhibition with the 11th International Biennial of Istanbul an important opportunity for all art lovers.” Like Brecht, from the motto of the Biennale is taken, Beuys is dealing with the question of what keeps mankind alive. For him, the answer is art.

http://www.podcast.de/episode/1359665/Joseph_Beuys_and_His_Students_at_Sak%C4%B1p_Sabanc%C4%B1_Museum_Istanbul

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