Page 59 - Studio International - February 1972

in the field of fine art. This may also of expression as with every day object is to provoke, to allow each contemporary trends in the visual
be the explanation for the somewhat reality: 'art =life' and, extended, man to be autonomous, an arts comes from the Rhineland. The
sentimental sympathy of the 'art X man'. Art's claim to eternity emancipated individual. And this Rhineland capital, Düsseldorf, is
Bavarians for the Rhinelanders. is denied. Man is in the foreground. through an intensified tenderness the home not only of Josef Beuys—
While in Munich the Jan Wellem Creativity, according to Beuys, is which frees the imagination. one of the leading initiators on the
collection led to the founding of the man's decisive chance to become Individuality is the way to contemporary art scene—but of
Munich Academy of Arts, the emancipated in socio-political terms. emancipation. many other artists influencing
Academy in Düsseldorf was Josef Beuys also propagates the On this basis the result of his contemporary trends. The man who
increasingly deprived. Peter indisputable equality of everything work is of no account to the artist. laid the foundation for the trend is
Cornelius, who became director of that exists. There are no isolated No longer is he concerned to produce Gerry Schum. Now 33, he studied
the Düsseldorf Academy after it had phenomena, because the general something finished. No longer does medicine and (more significantly)
been newly established in 1819, left interrelation and entanglement of all he feel compelled to create 'works film production and camera
after a short while to take on the with everything is so evident. He for posterity'. Homer's 'eternity' has technique at the Berlin Film
directorship of the more attractive believes it important that man should lasted for 2000 years. Gottfried Benn Academy. Eventually applying his
Academy of Arts in Munich, find his individuality, that he should believed that posthumous fame knowledge of film, Schum began to
although born and brought up in become aware of the possibility of would end after 7o years. report on art for German television.
Düsseldorf. His successor was carrying within himself the famous Contemporary artists look no further In dealing with the technical
Wilhelm von Schadow, and despite `pivot of Archimedes'. than the present. In Conceptual Art facilities available he found the
the changed rating of the Beuys, who has repeatedly said `Art in the Mind' -this takes the creative potential lacking during his
Düsseldorf Academy most that he could just as well be a form of abandoning the palpable. formal studies. Dissatisfied with the
outstanding artists of the late natural scientist, interprets the Instead, the activation of creativity conventional approach to art
German Rococo period and of the creative process as such as becomes the foremost concern. In reporting in television, he 'invented'
early classical period were students `sculpture'. This includes every Process Art this development is a brand-new television presentation
there. form of organization. Beuys taken a step further. The creative, of art : the 'Television Gallery'.
Under Wilhelm von Schadow the considers his founding of a 'students' the art, process is the focal point. Once a year, each time using a
motto of the Düsseldorf Academy party' as much a sculptural process At this stage the rejection of the different television station, he
was 'moderation', a policy as the 'bureau for direct democracy' `objective' standard is complete. produced a critical exploration of
appropriate for a former world which he has established. This is the point where art turns into art on the TV screen. In April 1969,
capital that had sunk to the status of Beuys also wants to encourage direct socio-political expression. his first 'exhibition' was
a provincial capital. What was the greatest possible number of This standpoint has its roots in transmitted under the title of 'Land
needed was an academy of painting. people in the greatest possible the tenets of Surrealism as held by Art' and brought him to notice as a
Schadow, a gifted organizer, kept number of places to think about the Breton—Surrealism with a different figure in progressive art. One reason
many of his students on as teachers nature of democracy. It is approach, as propounded by Henry for this was that for the first time he
to realize his ideas, a move which led understandable that a man who, in Miller, who wrote in Sexus that it had shown in context the affinity of
to the Tafelbild and the his capacity as an artist, is dedicated is reality which needs changing. In artists as different as Long,
establishment of the Schadow to a new form of 'totality in art' by this light there is no intention, in any Flanagan, Oppenheim, Smithson,
school's renown. making human existence a creative concrete, ideological sense, to change Boezem, Dibbets, de Maria and
Despite this the Academy slowly one, will be involved in constant the whole world. Rather, the Heizer.
slipped into total academicism, which disputes with administrative intention is to indicate to the Schum took his camera into each
led to the resignation of painters of bureaucracy. And although he individual the possibility of artistic process as a participatory
such stature as Rethel, Feuerbach rejects the mechanism of traditional changing himself on the basis of his instrument. Without the specific
and Böcklin. This period of logic in accordance with his concept own existential structure and the characteristics of a camera, the
stagnation lasted until 19o2, when a of a more humane art, a more creative circumstances in which he finds various manifestations could not
major industrial fair was held in human existence, he manages again himself. At a first (misleading) have occurred. Another striking
Düsseldorf and brought a new and again to defeat bureaucratic glance, Conceptual and Process Art feature was the fact, new to television,
awareness of the equally important rules and regulations by his strictly appear esoteric; in fact these that art was no longer treated as
supporting role of the industrialized rational and irrefutable expressions of art contain pragmatic documentary. Thus effectively
hinterland, the Ruhr region. argumentation. These successes proposals for everyday reality, which popularized before such a large
Düsseldorf, as the administrative contribute to his rapidly growing in view of its usefulness to the audience, 'Land Art' anticipated the
centre, became the office desk of the fame and to the steadily growing individual requires a new approach rejection of traditional concepts.
Ruhr, and acquired a certain sympathy he enjoys everywhere, and in thinking. Thus present-day art A year later Schum presented his
worldly air. it is this which provokes the proves to be primarily man-oriented. second television exhibition,
The Academy's traditionalism congruent antipathy. On the other It is logical that art which no `Identifications'. This put Beuys,
following Schadow had to meet the hand, there remains the fact that longer wants to be art in the Rinke, Reiner Ruthenbeck, Ger van
up-to-date teaching of the Beuys's creations are being sold at traditional sense requires a new Elk and others into a conceptual
Düsseldorf School of Art under top prices on the international art medium, free from transmitted context to make them the subject of
Peter Behrens, and with the merger market. q practices. It must give a specific more general discussion, more
of the two in 1919, attempts were KLAUS U. REINKE manifestation of the self-taught a general because of the implicit
made to achieve the comprehensive chance to flourish as a new kind of acceptance by a more general public
goals set by Krahe. The director, style, where spontaneity can function of the medium of television.
Walter Kaesbach, was able to do as one kind of expression. This Not long after Schum found it
something in this direction, but was spontaneity, said von Kleist (essay essential to establish a permanent
sacked by the Nazis at the beginning on the puppet theatre) is no longer gallery (until then he had lived in a
of their regime in 1933. possible or valid unless it springs caravan to achieve the mobility
After 1945 efforts were made to Video artists from the highest intellectual level. compatible with his 'style of work',
overcome the stultifying effects of At this point one recognizes the identical with his 'style of living'),
Nazi rule. During these post-war Valid standards are being devalued. truth of the dictum that today and settled in Düsseldorf, at
years probably the most important Until now the yardstick has always nothing can be regarded as an Ratingerstrasse 37. From then on he
director was Ewald Mataré. What been the quality of the finished work. isolated phenomenon. Nothing called his gallery `Video-Galerie
makes the Academy, now under How the artist arrived at his result exists on its own or in itself alone. Gerry Schum'.
Professor Dr Eduard Trier, at was immaterial. (In this context for Nothing can be seen as entirely Schum also realized the obvious
present internationally attractive `objective' read 'impersonal'.) But separate from everything else potential offered by new technical
are in the main the theories and in contemporary art the concept of surrounding it. Politics, economics, developments, turning his attention
practices of Josef Beuys, the the personal, subjective and sport, sculpture, are not isolated to video tape recording processes
professor of sculpture. individual is of supreme importance. phenomena. Every single part is (also used by the police, and by
Josef Beuys is described as The so-called 'objective' has itself defined by the sum of all parts. television dealers for advertising
`charismatic', an opinion held not become immaterial. Aesthetics have Modern man moves in a tangential purposes). This permits faster
only by his students but also by his been accorded a new status —a system. operation than film coverage, since
numerous antipodes. Beuys is as political perspective in a concrete It is not surprising that the basic it involves neither developing nor
much concerned with art as a means socio-political context, because their impulse for the most authoritative printing. It enables the artist to