The Shaman
Joseph Beuys
JOSEPH BEUYS, 1984. SILKSCREEN ON CARDSTOCK.
An elusive guru of modern art with mysterious and dark origins - the life of Beuys was an extension of his performance art. As teenage volunteer for the Nazi air force known as the Luftwaffe, he began to consider life as an artist. Later on, Beuys would often tell the story of his body being salvaged from the wreckage of his crashed plane by the indigenous people of Crimea and nursed back to health wrapped in fat and animal skins. The plane crash happened but no other part of the story was true - instead it was a way to bridge a gap between his fascist, violent beginnings and the deeply humanist, emotional, shamanistic artist he became. He crated a charismatic, messianic persona that was deeply spiritual, and proclaimed far and wide the healing power of art in a world that was wounded. “Our vision of the world", he said, “must be extended to encompass all the invisible energies with which we have lost contact.” This work, ‘The Shaman’, is a self portrait - an animalistic form appears in the centre and above it, the disembodied hat-wearing head of Beuys, all rendered in a thick, almost blood-like red. It is the portrait of a spiritual man, not unfamiliar with the darkness of violence.