Joseph Beuys at Tate Modern

An exhibition of Beuys work opens at Tate Modern the 4 of February and runs until May the 2nd. Not bad for those who are in London or passing through. Critic Brian Sewell says about Beuys (born 1921) and Leonardo da Vinci that only two things separated them, time (5 centuries) and Beuys experience of looking over the edge of the dark pit of death. Meaning his 2nd world war plain crash in the Russian winter at Crimea 1943. Shot down by the enemy.

But they were both philosophers, Catholics turned doubters, shared concerns with music, dubbed alchemist and shaman, and both were capable of practical jokes. Look out for this event at Tate on the internet, and Beuys work and life, to some, or maybe to many many, Beuys is still an inspiration. And perhaps he was more influential than Picasso or Duchamp for the 20th century art scene for doing more than just rejecting traditional ideas and concepts, and creating a myth of himself as a peep hole into the dark pit. The experience of death must change a man irrevocably and if and when we see a difference between him and his imitators we can get a glimpse of the “irrevocably” of a man capable of a practical joke.