Page 61 - Studio International - June 1974

Beuys's massive output. In fact the ' perfect" formula'. Therefore he does
collection constitutes a 'secret block', not erase and correct but simply
a personal selection of drawings collages any afterthoughts or
which Beuys has retained over the additions (including, on occasion,
years as a record of 'thinking forms in pieces of felt) to the existing surface.
evolution over a period of time'. Stylistically the drawings occupy the
For the majority of the English zone between Expressionism and
art public Beuys is an enigmatic Surrealism, between abstraction and
figure. Of course he is known as a figuration, but such a categorization
charismatic superstar of the is not illuminating in Beuys's case.
international art circuit, but since no The only framework he acknowledges
retrospective of his work has taken is his own.
place in England we are unfamiliar Although the secrecy of the block
with his development. This exhibition. of drawings is emphasized by the
organized by Nick Serota with the fact that most of them have dashes and
assistance of Caroline Tisdall, question marks in place of titles —
performs a valuable service by Beuys remarks that 'art is at its most
exposing the roots of his art, by effective and scientific when
providing an insight into the origins expressed with a question mark' —
of his actions and his philosophy their hermeticism stems mainly from
of creativity. their unusual content (unusual in viewer has to struggle hard to Bernard Cohen Big and Little 1973/4
Acrylic on linen, 6 x 12 ft
decipher the imagery, to single out the
individual elements from the
multiple layers of pencilled notation. Bernard Cohen at the Waddington
Furthermore the meaning of the Gallery, London, 23 April to 18
imagery is also allusive. In fact Beuys May.
has declared that his intention is not Bernard Cohen's new paintings at
to depict symbols 'but to express the Waddington's are as unconventional
powers that exist in the world : the as the last works shown at the
real powers'. For example, butter for Hayward two years ago. They are
Beuys embodies 'warmness', felt is an still very white, using the layers of
insulator 'a dividing principle white to locate clusters of dots on or
meaning both mental and social within their surface. At the Hayward,
insulation', the ice skate is a optical stimuli (more accurately the
conductor 'a moving element between absence of optical stimuli) drew the
cold and warm', the stag is a spectator into the works: the
'positive element of life' appearing in exoticism of this experience was
times of 'distress and danger', the checked by the realization that the
blood of a hare is the 'alchemical appearance and disappearance of the
character' of Beuys himself dots is effected by the invisible
In his later drawings produced in accumulation of white paint on top.
the late 1 950s and 1 960s Beuys Cohen has been driven to such
Joseph Beuys Untitled 1963 comparison to the formalism of most resorted more frequently to the use of optical extremes in order to limit the
recent art). They depict natural a brush as a drawing implement : he criteria for making marks in a painting
The earliest drawings (1948) are phenomena (plants, trees, mountains, drags it roughly across the paper and to its visual condition ; and this has
surprisingly delicate : exquisitely glaciers, volcanoes) ; materials blocks out crudely delineated areas of to be exaggerated in some way for
rendered geometric analyses of plant (butter, felt, blood, water, ice, stones) ; dark pigment. Seen separately, out of marks to read as decisions
structure tinted with watercolour; forces (magnetism, lighting, sunlight; context, many of these drawings conditioned by it. The absolute
they relate to Beuys's scientific animals (swans, hares, stags, wolves, would be interpreted as formalist visibility of a black spot under coats of
training as a biologist. Almost bees, horses) ; symbols and abstractions because their content is white paint is not, on the face of it, an
immediately afterwards his symbolic objects (crosses, spirals, presented in such a generalized way. aesthetic issue. These paintings
characteristic manner of expression triangles, walking staffs, ice skates, Such drawings pose the same continue to be constructed by such
emerges : a highly mobile pencil axes, hammers, nets, antlers, skulls, problem as hand-writing one cannot literally perceptual factors. But
scribble, a nervous scrawl that skates crystals) ; also figures such as the read. whereas before the processes of
erratically across the paper's surface. Celtic mountain God Penninus, the Although many of his loosely decision-making tended to be
Colour is applied in washes, blots biblical heroine Judith, and a defined signs derive from German dominated by the abnormality of
and stains. It is always introduced to constantly recurring image of a folklore, or from those currently context, here the wider visual
serve specific functions ; the tone woman, an actress or stone-throwing modish anachronisms alchemy and vocabulary makes their
grey is used 'to provoke a contrast Amazon. Rosicrucianism, Beuys's mythology construction, if not the rationale of
with the colour that already exists Beuys depicts nature but avoids is largely a personal construction that construction, all the more
in the world' ; the sweet colours in the any straightforward naturalism and which only becomes meaningful to legible. Before, the viewer could
drawings Volcano, Lift and rejects a coherent pictorial space. the initiated. Beuys rejects the listen in on an idiosyncratic game,
Yellowstone are an 'attempt to give His method of representation most science-based positivism and here he can play it himself.
an expression of the understanding closely resembles that of prehistoric materialism of Western society and The sheer length and sensory
of culture in the Western world' art. He frequently presents silhouettes proffers as an alternative a programme deprivations of the last works has
(Beuys believes there is a connection and superimpositions, and his of freedom through creativity which been condensed into smaller formats
between the Western use of colour boldness of execution is accompanied seeks to reconcile the spiritual and richer in visual incident. This time it's
and the materialistic culture of the by a precise rendition of important material aspects of man. His modern the paintings rather than the
West). details. version of German Romanticism and spectator that get disorientated,
Invariably his drawings exhibit a Thematically the drawings concern Idealism can easily degenerate into tipped a few degrees off true so the
protean energy. They have a rawness the transition between, or the mumbo-jumbo ; however the critic is diagonals of the works become the
and urgency similar to that found in coexistence of, such polarities as not concerned with the validity of viewer's horizontals. White
graffiti or L'art brut, not surprisingly active/passive, warm/cold, soft/hard, content but with the effectiveness of rectangles and ovals are spread
Beuys finds the distinction between male/female, chaos/structure its transmission in art. The drawings informally over the entire surface,
sanity and insanity meaningless. He earth/heaven. animal/human, clearly demonstrate that Beuys is an save the edges, where the adjusted
abhors polish or finish in the body/soul, life/death. These themes immensely gifted artist but doubts horizontals are most apparent. These
conventional sense and accepts the and motifs are variously combined remain as to whether he has evolved a shapes are built up in meticulously
fragmentary and the incomplete and developed throughout the plastic form capable of thin layers of acrylic, frequently
because he believes that it is no use sequence of drawings, but the communicating his thinking to an overlapping, and betraying in their
'delaying the attempt to say allusiveness of Beuys's technique audience. very faint coloration blue, red, yellow
something until you've found the means that in most instances the John A. Walker and black undercoats. From a