Skip to main content
Exhibition

Thinking is Form: The Drawings of Joseph Beuys

October 10, 1993–January 2, 1994

This retrospective exhibition comprises approximately 200 drawings by Joseph Beuys (1921-1986), the central figure in postwar German art. It focuses on the most intimate and revealing aspect of Beuys' work, one little known to American audiences. The selection charts the remarkable evolution of Beuys' ideas throughout the course of five decades in a variety of mediums, including pencil, watercolor, oil, collage, and chalk on blackboards. It traces the development of drawing from a private, introspective activity to one which became the vehicle for Beuys' vision of global social reform. Thinking is Form: the Drawings of Joseph Beuys is accompanied by a catalogue written by Ann Temkin, Bernice Rose and Dieter Koepplin and published by the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Organizers

This exhibition has been organized by Ann Temkin, the Muriel and Philip Berman Curator of 20th Century Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and Bernice Rose, Senior Curator of Drawings at The Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Itinerary

Museum of Modern Art, New York
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
Philadelphia Museum of Art
Art Institute of Chicago

Main Building

Museum map

Sponsors

This exhibition is made possible by generous grants from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Federal Republic of Germany, Deutsche Bank,The Pew Charitable Trusts, Lufthansa German Airlines, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc., The Bohen Foundation and theNational Endowment for the Arts. An indemnity has been granted by the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities. In Philadelphia, theexhibition received additional support from BMW of North America, Inc.The publication was supported in part by grants from Mr. and Mrs. Ronald S. Lauder, New York, and Mr. and Mrs. Josef Froehlich, Stuttgart.

Curators

Ann Temkin, the Muriel and Philip Berman Curator of 20th Century Art at the Philadelphia Museum of ArtBernice Rose, Senior Curator of Drawings at The Museum of Modern Art, New York

Check out other exhibitions


View full calendar