Untitled [verso]

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”).

27 giugno 1968 – 6 ottobre 1968

Exhibition: 4. documenta

May 1970

In Scotland with Demarco: the idea of “7000 Oaks”

Invited by Richard Demarco, Beuys came to Scotland; at Loch Awe and Rannoch Moor he first conceived the necessity of “7000 Oaks”.

August 1970

The 1970 Edinburgh Festival: “Arena” and “The Pack”

In August 1970, at the Edinburgh International Festival, Beuys, with Günther Uecker, Blinky Palermo, Robert Filliou and other Düsseldorf artists, showed the retrospective “Arena” and the installation “The Pack” and performed “Celtic Kinloch Rannoch”, using a blackboard for the first time; a year later he developed the action in Basel as “Celtic+”.

October 1972

Dismissed from the Düsseldorf Academy

Beuys abolished entry requirements to his class, and this policy caused friction; in 1972 he found 142 rejected applicants whom he wished to take on and, with 16 students, occupied the academy's offices. The relationship became irreconcilable and in October he was dismissed; he refused to accept the dismissal, which provoked a wave of protests from students, artists and critics.

1972–1985

The project “In Defence of Nature” in Bolognano

From 1972 to 1985 Beuys carried out in Bolognano the project “Operation In Defence of Nature”, the Italian project with the greatest international impact: artistic, political, ecological and humanitarian actions, among them the “Paradise Plantation” of 7,000 plants (1982) and “Olivestone” (1984).