The early drawings and watercolors of Joseph Beuys are counted among the treasures of international public and private collections. They are works of the highest artistic sensitivity, their filigree aesthetics as impressive as their conceptual and emotional depth. For Beuys, working on paper had an existential character. Drawing and painting with watercolors was a form of exploring a spiritual world of images which provided him with the fundamental relationships and terms for his later work as a politically active artist.
To illustrate the entire wealth of Beuys’ language of images, we have decided to combine two separately published volumes of watercolors (1989) and drawings (1992). Together they will provide a handy guide to Beuys’ complex œuvre for all future Beuys exhibitions.
