Block Beuys Darmstadt 2021

1970, Joseph Beuys (1921-1986) personally undertook to install 290 of his works in Block Beuys at the Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt, today the single largest cohesive ensemble of his works, extending through seven galleries on the museum's second floor. On the occasion of the 50th anniversary Melitta Kliege investigates why Beuys was keen to consolidate works from two decades in Block Beuys, forgoing opportunities to sell individual pieces, and make the ensemble accessible to the public as a selfcontained whole. Nicole Fritz bears on the role of popular superstition in Beuys's oeuvre, and shows how casting himself as a shaman allowed him to harness popular myths and magic for his art. Antje von Graevenitz zooms in on Beuys's first appearance 1963 in the Fluxus context and surveys sources, from Rosicrucian mysticism to the music of Erik Satie and the writings of Rudolph Steiner. Gabriele Mackert reconstructs the young Beuys's sensational critique of Marcel Duchamp, which became central to Beuys' argumentation of his expanded concept of art and can be found in a showcase in Block Beuys. Matthias Weiß uses a film interview by Beuys in Darmstadt to analyze Beuys' affinities to the figure of Iphigenia. Beuys' gallerist René Block provides insights into his decades-long collaboration for the most important most important actions from 1964 onwards.