Social sculpture is a phrase used to describe an expanded concept of
art
Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas.
There is no generally agreed definition of wha ...
that was invented by the artist and co-founder of the German Green Party,
Joseph Beuys
Joseph Heinrich Beuys ( , ; 12 May 1921 – 23 January 1986) was a German artist, teacher, performance artist, and art theorist whose work reflected concepts of humanism, sociology, and anthroposophy. He was a founder of a provocative art mov ...
. Beuys created the term "social sculpture" to embody his understanding of art's potential to transform society. As a work of art, a social sculpture includes human activity that strives to structure and shape society or the environment. The central idea of a social sculptor is an artist who creates structures in society using language, thoughts, actions, and objects.
Concept
During the 1960s, Beuys formulated his central theoretical concepts concerning the social, cultural and political function and potential of art. Indebted to Romantic writers such as
Novalis
Georg Philipp Friedrich Freiherr von Hardenberg (2 May 1772 – 25 March 1801), pen name Novalis (), was a German polymath who was a writer, philosopher, poet, aristocrat and mystic. He is regarded as an idiosyncratic and influential figure of ...
and Schiller, Beuys was motivated by a utopian belief in the power of universal human creativity and was confident in the potential for art to bring about revolutionary change. These ideas were founded in the social ideas of
anthroposophy
Anthroposophy is a spiritualist movement founded in the early 20th century by the esotericist Rudolf Steiner that postulates the existence of an objective, intellectually comprehensible spiritual world, accessible to human experience. Followers ...
and the work of
Rudolf Steiner
Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner (27 or 25 February 1861 – 30 March 1925) was an Austrian occultist, social reformer, architect, esotericist, and claimed clairvoyant. Steiner gained initial recognition at the end of the nineteenth century as a ...
, of which he was a vigorous and original proponent. This translated into Beuys' formulation of the concept of social sculpture, in which society as a whole was to be regarded as one great work of art (the Wagnerian Gesamtkunstwerk) to which each person can contribute creatively (perhaps Beuys' most famous phrase, borrowed from Novalis, is "Everyone is an artist"). In the video "Willoughby SHARP,'' Joseph Beuys, Public Dialogues'' (1974/120 min)", a record of Beuys' first major public discussion in the U.S., Beuys elaborates three principles: Freedom, Democracy, and Socialism, saying that each of them depends on the other two in order to be meaningful. In 1973, Beuys wrote:
: ''"Only on condition of a radical widening of definitions will it be possible for art and activities related to art oprovide evidence that art is now the only evolutionary-revolutionary power. Only art is capable of dismantling the repressive effects of a senile social system that continues to totter along the deathline: to dismantle in order to build ‘A SOCIAL ORGANISM AS A WORK OF ART’… EVERY HUMAN BEING IS AN ARTIST who – from his state of freedom – the position of freedom that he experiences at first-hand – learns to determine the other positions of the TOTAL ART WORK OF THE FUTURE SOCIAL ORDER."''
In 1982, he was invited to create a work for
Documenta
''documenta'' is an exhibition of contemporary art which takes place every five years in Kassel, Germany.
The ''documenta'' was founded by artist, teacher and curator Arnold Bode in 1955 as part of the Bundesgartenschau (Federal Horticultura ...
7. He delivered a large pile of basalt stones. From above, one could see that the pile of stones was a large arrow pointing to a single oak tree that he had planted. He announced that the stones should not be moved unless an oak tree was planted in the new location of the stone. 7,000 oak trees were then planted in Kassel, Germany. This project exemplified the idea that a social sculpture was defined as interdisciplinary and participatory.
In 1991, " The Thing" took its inspiration from the concept of social sculpture.
Since 1994, the Stela for Tolerance is one of the biggest projects worldwide following the concept of social sculpture.
In 2007, at
Documenta 12
documenta 12 was the twelfth edition of documenta, a quinquennial contemporary art exhibition. It was held between 16 June and 23 September 2007 in Kassel, Germany. The artistic director was Roger M. Buergel in collaboration with Ruth ...
, Kirill Preobrazhenskiy created work "Tram 4 Inner Voice Radio". His work was compared by critics with Beuys' oaks.
Organization for direct democracy through plebiscite
The "Organization for direct democracy through plebiscite" was founded by the artists Joseph Beuys, Johannes Stüttgen and Karl Fastabend on June 19, 1971 in Düsseldorf as a political organization. The goal was influencing social patterns with implementing Beuys' concept of the extended notion of art and the social sculpture via political means. Today, Johannes Stüttgen spread the idea for direct democracy with the project "Omnibus".
The individual
Beuys believed everybody was an artist. He once said "every sphere of human activity, even peeling a potato can be a work of art as long as it is a conscious act," the idea being that every decision you make should be thought out and attempt to make or contribute to a work of art which in the end is society. Individuality and well-educated decisions are promoted in the person while the government is made of those decisions put into referendums. This point of view invites followers to humble themselves by realizing that they are an important part of a whole not only an individual.Weintraub, Danto, Mcevilley. Art On The Edge And Over, "Political Reformation: Joseph Beuys." 1996
Classificatory disputes about art
Art historians and philosophers of art have long had classificatory disputes about art regarding whether a particular cultural form or piece of work should be classified as art. Disputes about what does and does not count as art continue to occur ...
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Conceptual architecture Conceptual architecture is a form of architecture that utilizes conceptualism, characterized by an introduction of ideas or concepts from outside of architecture often as a means of expanding the discipline of architecture. This produces an essentia ...
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Contemporary art
Contemporary art is the art of today, produced in the second half of the 20th century or in the 21st century. Contemporary artists work in a globally influenced, culturally diverse, and technologically advancing world. Their art is a dynamic com ...
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Experiments in Art and Technology Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.), a non-profit and tax-exempt organization, was established in 1967 to develop collaborations between artists and engineers. The group operated by facilitating person-to-person contacts between artists and e ...
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Information art
Information art, which is also known as informatism or data art, is an emerging art form that is inspired by and principally incorporates data, computer science, information technology, artificial intelligence, and related data-driven fields. The ...
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Installation art
Installation art is an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior interventions are often called ...
Systems art
Systems art is art influenced by cybernetics, and systems theory, that reflects on natural systems, social systems and social signs of the art world itself.
Systems art emerged as part of the first wave of the conceptual art movement extended i ...
* Adams, David: "Joseph Beuys: Pioneer of a Radical Ecology," Art Journal, vol. 51, no. 2 Summer 1992. 26-34; also published in The Social Artist vol. 2,no. 1 Spring 2014: 3-13.
* Adams, David: "From Queen Bee to Social Sculpture: The Artistic Alchemy of Joseph Beuys," Afterword in Rudolf Steiner, Bees. Hudson,N.Y.: Anthroposophic Press, 1998, pp. 187–213.()
* Adams, David: "Joseph Beuys on Art as the Sole Revolutionary Force," The Social Artist vol. 2, no. 2 Summer 2014: 33-34.
* Adriani, Götz, Winfried Konnertz, and Karin Thomas: Joseph Beuys: Life and Works. Trans. Patricia Lech. Woodbury, N.Y.: Barron’s Educational Series, 1979.
* Bastian, Heiner: Joseph Beuys: The secret block for a secret person in Ireland. Text by Dieter Koepplin. Munich: Schirmer/Mosel, 1988.
* Borer, Alain. The Essential Joseph Beuys. London: Thames and Hudson, 1996.
* Buchloh, Benjamin H.D.: 'Beuys: The Twilight of the Idol,' Artforum, vol.5, no.18 (January 1980), pp. 35–43.
* Buchloh, Benjamin H.D., Krauss, Rosalind, Michelson, Annette: ‘Joseph Beuys at the Guggenheim,’ in: October, 12 (Spring 1980), pp 3–21
* De Duve, Thierry: Kant After Duchamp, Cambridge (Mass.): MIT Press, 1996.
* Murken, Axel Hinrich: ''Joseph Beuys und die Medizin''. F. Coppenrath, 1979.
* Oman Hiltrud: "Joseph Beuys. Die Kunst auf dem Weg zum Leben." München, Heyne (1998)
* Potts, Alex: 'Tactility: The Interrogation of Medium in the Art of the 1960s,' Art History, Vol.27, No.2 April 2004. 282-304.
* Ray, Gene (ed.): Joseph Beuys, Mapping the Legacy. New York and Sarasota:
Tellus Audio Cassette Magazine
Launched from the Lower East Side, Manhattan in 1983 as a subscription only bimonthly publication, the ''Tellus Audio Cassette Magazine'' utilized the audio cassette medium to distribute no wave downtown music and audio art and was in activity ...
@
Ubuweb
UbuWeb is a web-based educational resource for avant-garde material available on the internet, founded in 1996 by poet Kenneth Goldsmith. It offers visual, concrete and sound poetry, expanding to include film and sound art mp3 archives.
Philosop ...