Known for his pioneering performance and visual works of art as much for his theological teachings, Joseph Beuys is widely recognized as one of the most influential artists of the latter half of the 20th century.

Born in Krefeld, Germany in 1921, Beuys grew up amidst a tumultuous period in German history. At 22, he joined the German Air Force, volunteering as a pilot in the Luftwaffe during WWII. According to his personal legend, his plane was shot down over Crimea and he was found and saved by a group of Tatars. His rescuers, Beuys would later recount, stripped him naked, smeared him with grease, placed him on a sled and wrapped him in felt to keep him warm before nursing him back to health. Whether or not events played out the way Beuys asserted, the plane crash would come to influence his art for the rest of his life, with grease, felt and sleds becoming themes that he would revisit again and again.

After the war ended, Beuys returned to his family in Krefeld and decided to leave his earlier studies in biology in favor of art. He and his family relocated to Düsseldorf where Beuys began his education at the Kunstakademie, eventually becoming a professor at the school. While there, he developed a reputation as a radical and unconventional teacher. He believed that the spiritual could be studied with the same depth and intensity that modern science applies to the physical world but also saw education as being instrumental to political engagement. His lectures became his first, and what Beuys later considered his greatest, works of performance art.

Beuys and his students engaged in deep cultural dialogue alongside creative instruction, organizing their own political group while practicing the concept of “social sculpture”, the idea that life was one ongoing work of art. By this time Beuys had become a key figure in the Fluxus movement and was deeply involved in the avant-garde art scene of the 1960s and 1970s. Through his ties to the art world and his position at the school, he ushered in a new generation of German artists that sought to abolish the boundaries between art and life and who viewed art as a conduit for social revolution.

To this end, Beuys used editioned works to disseminate his ideas, ultimately creating more than 600 prints and multiples. Today though, he is best known for his performance pieces including How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare (1965), I Like America and America Likes Me (1974), and 7,000 Oaks (1982).

Joseph Beuys passed away on January 23, 1986, but his legacy continues to influence contemporary art and thought. His innovative use of materials, dedication to social and environmental issues, and his belief in the transformative power of art have left an indelible mark on the art world, making him a pivotal figure that continues to fascinate viewers and capture the public imagination.