Josef beuys, 1979
Colored gray photo with brown color labeled
125 x 255 cm
On Request
"Mit dem Ende der modernen Kunst fängt die Kunst erst an" That is how it is in my memory: It was one of the days when Beuys was in Darmstadt for the Guggenheim exhibition. He had informed me how he had kept me informed about his appointments as an artist for a long time in order to offer me the opportunity to shoot my film "Joseph Beuys - Every Man is an Artist". The museum was buzzing. Nevertheless, I managed to invite Beuys into the Mastodon room – Dino+Beuys, what a motif, that Beuys also was happy about. Willi Bongard, who was also present with a few other observers, expressed his wish for a print, and Beuys agreed. In Frau Bachor's laboratory on Aachener Str. I commissioned three prints, one for Bongard, one for Beuys and one for myself. On the occasion of an interview, I took the role to Beuys at Drakeplatz. He was enthusiastic about the result, "I'll make something out of it," or something like that was his comment. My copy received, as I see it, the rank of a manifesto: "With the end of modern art, art only begins." I did not follow up on the whereabouts of the other two prints. Beuys passed the edited sheet for Bongard on to Bongard. I got a thank you from Bongard. A few years ago a friend told me that he had come across the Beuys+Mastodon motif in a Japanese museum. I am not involved in the greenish alienated versions, including the exhibit from the Beuys action at Hans Meyer. Despite the same motif, the work does not come from my source. I have already assured Eva Beuys of this several times. And I expressly confirm it here again: I only initiated the three mentioned prints from my own negatives. I can neither affirm nor deny whether one of them was used for multiplication. I have no idea. The fact that further Green reproductions soon appeared on the market after the Meyer event did not irritate me, as they all bore Beuys' lettering and signature, so they were all authorized by Beuys, which told me it was correct. I also connected the alienation of color with a conscious creative intention or even influence on the part of Beuys. A non-binding guess on my part Werner Krüger