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Joseph Beuys: Das Wirtschaftswertprinzip (2002)

Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Das Wirtschaftswertprinzip / The Principle of Economic Value documents Joseph Beuys' 1980 installation Wirtschaftswerte, where he juxtaposed Flemish Old Master paintings with everyday products labelled "1 economic value". This striking contrast highlighted tensions between capitalism and socialism, high and low culture, and culture versus consumerism. The work, featuring goods from the German Democratic Republic, powerfully critiques how culture has been subsumed by economic value. The book details the original installation and its later iterations, newly redesigned for the centenary of Beuys' birth.
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Format: Hardback
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Ideal for readers interested in contemporary art, cultural critique, and the intersections of economics and visual culture.

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Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

A sumptuous room in the Museum of Fine Arts in Ghent in 1980: on its wall hang Flemish Old Master paintings, gleaming in their gilt frames; yet in the middle of the room stand industrial metal shelves, sparsely stocked with packets of everyday perishable products, salt, flour, olives, and peas. Each packet is signed by Joseph Beuys and labelled with "1 economic value."

This was Beuys' compelling installation Wirtschaftswerte (Economic Values), a declaration that culture had once and for all been reduced to economic property. The products Beuys selected were notably from the German Democratic Republic, heightening the disparity between West and East (both in his native Germany, at the time still divided, and beyond) among other contrasts: capitalism and socialism, high and low culture, culture and consumerism, the mundane and the luxurious.

Das Wirtschaftswertprinzip / The Principle of Economic Value documents in detail the original installation, which Beuys later recreated in different locations and expanded into a series of multiples. Originally published in 1990, the book has now been re-designed by Klaus Staeck and Gerhard Steidl on the occasion of the hundredth anniversary of Beuys' birth in 2021.

Our culture is not shaped by culture; our culture is completely shaped by economic values. - Joseph Beuys

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9783958299146

Publisher: Steidl Publishers

Format: Hardback

Date Published: 16 June 2022

Country: Germany

Imprint: Steidl Verlag

Illustration: 7 Illustrations, black and white; 70 Illustrations, color

Contributors:

  • Text by Klaus Staeck
  • Text by Bart De Baere
  • Text by Jan Hoet
  • Text by Heiner MΓΌller

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Width: 210.0mm

Height: 297.0mm

Weight: 880g

Pages: 136

About the Author

Widely regarded as one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century, Joseph Beuys (1921-86) was a sculptor, draughtsman, action and installation artist, as well as a teacher, politician and activist. After serving as a soldier in World War II, experiences that would strongly shape his practice, he studied sculpture at the Kunstakademie DΓΌsseldorf, where he was made professor in 1961. From the early 1960s Beuys dissolved the difference between his biography and art, and increasingly employed his persona and charisma in what he deemed art's ultimate purpose: to radically democratize society. He called for the adoption of his universalist conception of art as a creative, transformative force within politics, science, philosophy and economics. Now as then Beuys exerts a palpable influence upon artistic and political discourse.

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