I AM A SENDER. MULTIPLES BY JOSEPH BEUYS
Between the mid-1960s and his
death in 1986,
created over 500 multiples —
inexpensive, editioned artworks, with which he sought to make his art available
to a larger audience. Experimenting freely with a wide array of formats and
materials, he used these small objects and works on paper to reach a broader
public than was possible with unique artworks or with ephemeral artistic
activities like his performances, lectures and discussions. Positioning himself
as a broadcaster, Beuys imagined the multiples as ‘antennae,’ which would carry
his creative concerns into the wider world: ‘I am a Sender,’ he declared, ‘I
transmit!’ Gathering together ideas and energies from across the many strands
of his expansive oeuvre, the multiples expressed the full range of Beuys’s
artistic interests, relaying these into the homes and daily lives of their
owners.
Thanks to a privately-funded
purchase of over 200 works in 2008 and 2009, and to subsequent acquisitions,
the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen possess a sizeable collection of the
multiples. The exhibition ‘I am a Sender. Multiples by Joseph Beuys’ (26.06.2014 –
11.01.2015) is the first in-depth presentation of these holdings. It is the
product of an 18-month research collaboration between the Pinakothek der
Moderne and the Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, USA,
which also holds one of the few extensive collections of these works. Initiated
by the Pinakothek der Moderne, this project was made possible in Munich by the International
Patrons of the Pinakothek and in Cambridge by Renke B. and Pamela M. Thye, and the German Friends
of the Busch-Reisinger Museum.
Presenting nearly one hundred
works from the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, and supplementing these with
a number of external loans, the exhibition addresses four key aspects of the
multiples: their astonishing material diversity, their status as editioned
objects, Beuys’s cooperation with a range of publishers in their production,
and his use of the multiples to support specific projects and activities. This
wide-ranging, multi-focussed presentation provides the opportunity to approach
the multiples from both past and contemporary perspectives, reflecting on their
status as historical objects, while considering the kinds of messages they
transmit today. (Text: Pinakothek der Moderne Munich)