Biography of Joseph Beuys
Compiled on the basis of Joseph Beuys. Parallelprozesse (2010) and Joseph Beuys - Zeichnungen: "Ich bin interessiert an Transformation, Veränderung, Revolution" (2006) as well as Joseph Beuys - kleine Zeichnungen: aus dem Bestand der Stiftung Museum Schloss Moyland, Sammlung van der Grinten, Joseph-Beuys-Archiv des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen (1995).
1921
Joseph Heinrich Beuys is born on 12 May in Krefeld. His parents are Josef Jakob Beuys, a merchant, and his wife Johanna Maria Margarete, née Hülsermann. In the autumn of that year, the family moves to Kleve.
1927–1931
Beuys attends primary school in Kleve, then studies at the State High School of Kleve.
1939
He joins a circus to work as a stuntman for a year.
1941
Beuys leaves secondary school with his school-leaving certificate. In the same year, he enlists in the army and begins training as a radio operator.
1943
In a letter to his parents, Beuys writes that he intends to become a sculptor after the war.
1944
He spends time in a military hospital after his plane crashed over the Crimea whilst he was serving as an air-to-ground radio operator. Beuys is then deployed as a paratrooper on the Western Front.
1945
Between 18 May and 5 August, Beuys is held as a British prisoner of war in Cuxhaven.
1946–1951
He is admitted to the State Academy of Fine Art in Düsseldorf. Beuys initially studies under Josef Enseling, before later transferring to the class of Ewald Mataré.
1952
Beuys becomes Mataré’s master student.
1953
First solo exhibition from 13 February to 15 March in Kranenburg at the home of the van der Grinten brothers, who had also purchased some of Beuys’s early works two years earlier.
1955–1958
An extended stay in Kranenburg at the van der Grinten family home, where Beuys overcomes a profound crisis.
1959
Marries Eva Wurmbach on 19 September.
1961
Beuys becomes a professor of sculpture at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Düsseldorf. On 22 December, his son Wenzel is born.
1963
The first Fluxus concert takes place in the auditorium of the Düsseldorf State Academy of Fine Arts; an accompanying exhibition is held in the stables of the Van der Grinten House in Kranenburg that autumn.
1964
Beuys takes part in documenta III in Kassel, exhibiting drawings and sculptures. On 11 October, his daughter Jessyka is born.
1967–1968
He founds the Deutsche Studentenpartei. His first solo exhibition is held at the Städtisches Museum in Mönchengladbach, in lieu of which the collector Karl Ströher acquires all the works on display.
1971
Beuys founds the Organisation für direkte Demokratie durch Volksabstimmung – Freie Volksinitiative e.V. Düsseldorf.
1972
Dismissal without notice as a university lecturer on 11 October, after Beuys occupies the Art Academy’s secretariat with rejected applicants in order to force their admission to his class.
1974
The ‘I Like America and America Likes Me’ exhibition at René Block’s gallery in New York.
1976
Joseph Beuys is representing Germany with his ‘Tram Stop’ installation in the German Pavilion at the Venice Biennale.
1977
Beuys creates the installation ‘Honey Pump at the Workplace’ at documenta 6 in Kassel.
1979
In September, Beuys is awarded the Goslar Kaiserring. In the same year, he stands as a candidate in the European Parliament elections for Die Grünen (The Green party), a party he had co-founded. In November, a retrospective is held at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York.
1980
Beuys turns down an appointment to the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, which he had been offered two years earlier. He becomes the lead candidate of the Green party in North Rhine-Westphalia for the federal election in autumn.
1982
The ‘City Reforestation Instead of City Administration. 7,000 Oaks’ campaign at documenta 7 in Kassel.
1984
Exhibition and talks in Tokyo.
1985
At the Museo di Capodimonte in Naples, Beuys openes his final exhibition, ‘Palazzo Regale’, which he installs himself.
1986
Joseph Beuys is awarded the Wilhelm Lehmbruck Prize by the City of Duisburg. He dies on 23 January in his studio in Düsseldorf.
Further reading on Beuys’s work
Ausst.-Kat. Bedburg-Hau 1995
Joseph Beuys - kleine Zeichnungen: aus dem Bestand der Stiftung Museum Schloss Moyland, Sammlung van der Grinten, Joseph-Beuys-Archiv des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen, hg. von Förderverein Museum Schloss Moyland, Ausst.-Kat. Bedburg-Hau, Museum Schloss Moyland, 1995, Bedburg-Hau: Förderverein Museum Schloss Moyland 1995.
Ausst.-Kat. Berlin 2021
Von der Sprache aus. Joseph Beuys zum 100. Geburtstag, hg. von Nina Schallenberg, Ausst.-Kat. Berlin, Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart, 2021, Berlin: Hatje Cantz 2021.
Ausst.-Kat. Dresden 2021
Joseph Beuys. Linie zu Linie – Blatt um Blatt. Die Zeichnungssammlung der Familie Beuys, hg. von Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Mailena Mallach, Stephanie Buck und Marion Ackermann, Ausst.-Kat. Dresden, Kupferstich-Kabinett, 2021, München: Schirmer/Mosel Verlag 2021.
Ausst.-Kat. Düsseldorf 2010
Joseph Beuys. Parallelprozesse, hg. von Marion Ackermann und Isabelle Malz, Ausst.-Kat. Düsseldorf, K20 Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, 2010, München: Schirmer/Mosel Verlag 2010.
Ausst.-Kat. Karlsruhe 2006
Joseph Beuys - Zeichnungen: "Ich bin interessiert an Transformation, Veränderung, Revolution", hg. von Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe und Kirsten Claudia Voigt, Ausst.-Kat. Karlsruhe, Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe, 2006, Karlsruhe: Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe 2006.
Ausst.-Kat. Stuttgart 2021
Joseph Beuys. Der Raumkurator, hg. von Ina Conzen und Nathalie Lachmann, Ausst.-Kat. Stuttgart, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, 2021, Stuttgart: Belser 2021.
Ausst.-Kat. Wien 2021
Joseph Beuys. Denken. Handeln. Vermitteln, hg. von Stella Rollig und Harald Krejci, Ausst.-Kat. Wien: Belvedere 21, 2021, Köln: Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther und Franz König 2021.