Joseph Beuys - Collection presentation

Artists

Joseph Beuys

Press release

Curated by: Maja Wismer

In 1969, Kunstmuseum Basel showed the first solo exhibition in Switzerland by Joseph Beuys (1921–1986). In 1977, the museum acquired the piece THE HEARTH (Feuerstätte), developed 1974. Metal rods lean against three walls of the gallery, correspondingly to the prime numbers between one and eleven. Three chalk-marked blackboards form part of the exhibition. One contains the word “Hearth” beside the outline of a map of Ireland; the other two contain notes Beuys made on a talk he gave in England in 1974 in which he spoke on reorganizing society. A handcart with a disassembled copper rod and a further rod shaped like a walking stick and wrapped in felt are placed in the room. A long copper and iron rod, called “Eurasienstab” by Beuys, is placed behind the rods on the wall.

THE HEARTH (Feuerstätte) was created in a moment when Beuys convincingly succeeded in using materials to situate and bring together his artistic and political ideas in space. The chalkboard drawings and the placement of the rods evoke an assembly. Beuys uses copper, iron and felt for their physical properties, as they conduct and store warmth. He saw a similar potential in the social energy that would be necessary to jointly change political systems.