Ketterer Kunst announces exhibition and auction: 100 Years of Joseph Beuys

MUNICH.- It will surely be on of the most significant recent Beuys auctions when in June Ketterer Kunst in Munich will call up more than 20 works by the likewise radical and influential artist. As the interest is already strong, the house is going to show a range of works, some acquired directly from the artist, in the special exhibition “Wo ist Element 3?” at its Berlin branch as of March 26. Consignments are accepted until early May.

“Top quality pieces by Joseph Beuys are very rare on the current art market. Thus I am all the more happy that we are able to make this great offer to our clients on occasion of the artist‘s 100th birthday“, says Robert Ketterer, auctioneer and owner of Ketterer Kunst. “Both the exhibition and the auction will move into the focus of scores of art lovers and Beuys experts around the world.“

Creative, complex and controversial – best describes Joseph Beuys. In his creation he examined questions regarding humanism, social philosophy and anthroposophy, conceiving the concept of the ”Social Plastic“ in a sense of actively shaping society and politics. Above all, he was one of the most important performance artists ever. The Berlin exhibition at Ketterer Kunst allows deep insight into the artist‘s oeuvre and puts strong focus on Beuys‘ recurring question regarding ‘Element 3‘, which aims at establishing future prospects for man in society and nature.

Works on display, of which many have featured in museum exhibitions at the ‘Gropius Bau’, Berlin, the ‘Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen’, Düsseldorf and the ‘Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum’ in Duisburg, show the full range of techniques the exceptional artist employed. In his collages, etchings,

drawings, and most of all in his vast range of objects, materials such as gelatin, soil, wax, crystals, wood, marble, as well as various metals are used in addition to objects like suitcases and boxes. Next to his preferred materials felt and rabbit blood, some works also contain fishbones or magnetic waste, which, owing to their materiality, are full of transformatory meaning.

In context of the exhibition a discussion with Prof. Dr. Eugen Blume, art historian and former director of the Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart in Berlin, will also take place.