Main Current (Hauptstrom)

1960s

Forms the idea of “social sculpture”

Drawing on Novalis and Schiller and on Rudolf Steiner's ideas of social threefolding, Beuys developed the concept of social sculpture: society as a whole is one great work of art to which everyone can contribute creatively (“everyone is an artist”).

26 November 1965

First solo exhibition in a private gallery

The show opened with an action involving a dead hare: Beuys, his face covered in honey and gold leaf, murmured explanations of the drawings on the walls to the animal while viewers watched through the gallery window; some critics called the photograph with the hare a new Mona Lisa of the 20th century.

1967

Founds a party made up of students

In June 1967, during a student demonstration in West Berlin, a participant died after a clash with the police; in response Beuys created a political party made up solely of students, demanding student self-government and free admission to university for anyone who wished.

27 giugno 1968 – 6 ottobre 1968

Exhibition: 4. documenta

1969

Calls teaching his greatest work

In a 1969 Artforum interview with Willoughby Sharp, Beuys added to his famous statement that teaching is his greatest work of art: the rest is merely waste product and demonstration.