Wild Beuys
When Joseph Beuys crashed his plane during the Second World War, the Tartars who rescued him rubbed animal fat on his body, and wrapped him in felt. It should be no surprise to see felt and animal fat as recurrent elements in his ready mades and central to his art.
Beuys is the subject of the Artist Rooms exhibition at the De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill on Sea. The Artist Rooms series of exhibitions are sponsored by Tate and the National Galleries of Scotland, and are scattered around the country - Warhol in Walsall, Mapplethorpe in Sheffield - but you need to do some digging to find the dates and locations of them (the Tate's own website not being that informative - http://www.tate.org.uk/collections/featuredworks_doffay.htm is one way in), and seems to be built around the donation of Anthony d’Offay (see also http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2009/aug/24/artist-rooms). ETA: http://www.tate.org.uk/collection/artistrooms/ gives dates and venues
The most striking piece of work, one of Beuys's last, is on its own in the gallery next to the cafe: a Neapolitan Ladder - a narrow, rickety, wooden ladder jutting into the air, counter balance by wires and lead weights. It seems to defy gravity - it is both dense and weightless. And of course you can't photograph it.
The main part of the exhibition I did backwards, beginning with various posters from the 1980s and 1970s, at exhibitions, performances and lectures - environmentalism was clearly an interest and he both lectured and produced art on the theme. Along a parallel wall were various ready mades (although he doesn't use to term) - a sled with folded felt and a torch, a film canister and wooden and felt postcards, and rose in a vase. On the end wall is a felt suit. Then there's a felt cover campbed with a heater, a couple of installation with accumulators, and a row of glass cases (vitremes? there's a specific word), some of which include animal fat in cardboard boxes. Finally, a range of largely abstract designs, some drawn on newspapers or light sensitive paper, with a burnt earth or terracotta being the dominant colour. One piece from the seventies was entitled Negentrophy, which feels rather post-New Wave.
I got the sense that there was a private mythology going on here, with nothing really inofrmation in the picture labels to bring this out. Rather than a catalogue, there is a book of short essays on his work - which I need to read. I guess I needed to read this first. I'm also assuming that Beuys will get some space at the Tate in due course.
Meanwhile the building - I still love the De La Warr Pavilion, and I'm happy to breath in its deco splendour, to sit of the deck and watch the vanishing points, and the straight lines linking up to the curves.
I think this was my fourth visit, and I think I spot a different angle each time. This time it was good to have so much sun - but I failed to get onto the roof as they were setting up for a concert.
Oh, and the aircrash story is almost certainly bull. Beuys wasn't found by Tartars nor rubbed in animal fat. But you can see why he claimed to have been.
Beuys is the subject of the Artist Rooms exhibition at the De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill on Sea. The Artist Rooms series of exhibitions are sponsored by Tate and the National Galleries of Scotland, and are scattered around the country - Warhol in Walsall, Mapplethorpe in Sheffield - but you need to do some digging to find the dates and locations of them (the Tate's own website not being that informative - http://www.tate.org.uk/collections/featuredworks_doffay.htm is one way in), and seems to be built around the donation of Anthony d’Offay (see also http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2009/aug/24/artist-rooms). ETA: http://www.tate.org.uk/collection/artistrooms/ gives dates and venues
The most striking piece of work, one of Beuys's last, is on its own in the gallery next to the cafe: a Neapolitan Ladder - a narrow, rickety, wooden ladder jutting into the air, counter balance by wires and lead weights. It seems to defy gravity - it is both dense and weightless. And of course you can't photograph it.
The main part of the exhibition I did backwards, beginning with various posters from the 1980s and 1970s, at exhibitions, performances and lectures - environmentalism was clearly an interest and he both lectured and produced art on the theme. Along a parallel wall were various ready mades (although he doesn't use to term) - a sled with folded felt and a torch, a film canister and wooden and felt postcards, and rose in a vase. On the end wall is a felt suit. Then there's a felt cover campbed with a heater, a couple of installation with accumulators, and a row of glass cases (vitremes? there's a specific word), some of which include animal fat in cardboard boxes. Finally, a range of largely abstract designs, some drawn on newspapers or light sensitive paper, with a burnt earth or terracotta being the dominant colour. One piece from the seventies was entitled Negentrophy, which feels rather post-New Wave.
I got the sense that there was a private mythology going on here, with nothing really inofrmation in the picture labels to bring this out. Rather than a catalogue, there is a book of short essays on his work - which I need to read. I guess I needed to read this first. I'm also assuming that Beuys will get some space at the Tate in due course.
Meanwhile the building - I still love the De La Warr Pavilion, and I'm happy to breath in its deco splendour, to sit of the deck and watch the vanishing points, and the straight lines linking up to the curves.
I think this was my fourth visit, and I think I spot a different angle each time. This time it was good to have so much sun - but I failed to get onto the roof as they were setting up for a concert.
Oh, and the aircrash story is almost certainly bull. Beuys wasn't found by Tartars nor rubbed in animal fat. But you can see why he claimed to have been.