Here we offer an extensive and significant collection of over 360 announcement cards, invite cards, publicity cards, announcement leaflets and other postcards by Joseph Beuys.
The collection currently consists of 324 cards and documents from July 1964 to artist’s unexpected death in January 1986 and a number of additional posthumous cards. The vast majority of these cards are directly related to solo exhibitions – of which Beuys had around 180 during his life time – hence this is a large proportion of all the Beuys invitation cards issued.
FRIEDENSHASE MIT ZUBEHOR. 1982.
Gelsenkirchen: FIU, n.d. (1982)
115 x 10.5cm, full colour artist's postcard issued by the Free International University with an image of the golden hare that Beuys made out of a melted-down crown during a public aktion in Kassel Documenta in 1982 to help raise funds for his 7000 Eichen project. VG+.
DIFESA DELLA NATURA. 1982.
Pescara/Bonn: FIU/Galerie Klein, 1982
21 x 30cm, 2pp - large format announcement for the "Defence of Nature" event with a colour image of a banner with the event title on it being held up in a vineyard while volunteers pick grapes. Verso event and gallery details in red and black. VG+.
BEI DIESER WAHL: DIE GRUNEN. 1982.
Gelsenkirchen, Free International University - FIU, 1982 14.8 x 10.4cm, 2pp - artist's postcard designed by Johannes Stuettgen for the Green Party in Germany. The Greens took part in elections in the Federal Republic of Germany on March 6, 1983 and for the first time the Greens managed to elect their own supporters to parliament. Beuys was one of the founders of the German Green Party and used his popularity to garner support for the group as here. The signature on the card is printed. VG+.
Johannes Stuettgen
GOLDHASE 1982/83. 1983.
Koln: Edition Heinz Holtmann, 1983 15.5 x 21.5cm, 2pp publicity card announcing the release of the title edition of photographs of Beuys' Goldhase aktion in Kassel where he melted a gold faux crown down and smelted a sun and a hare as symbols of peace and cross-Europe unity. The front of the card shows Zoa's photograph overprinted with a small golden circle, verso publisher's details. VG+.
Zoa
DER VERSUCH, AM ENDE DOCH NOTH SPASS ZU HABEN. 1983. SIGNED BY BEUYS.
Dusseldorf: Kunstmueum Dussedorf, 1983
10.5 x 21cm, 4pp announcement card with a b/w image of a detail of an unidentified Beuys work on the front. A show of works from the Sammlung Ulbricht. This example is signed in red felt tipped pen by Beuys over left side of the image. Verso publisher's details.
BERGKONIG 1958 – 61. 1983. SIGNED & STAMPED BY BEUYS.
Frankfurt am Main: Städtische Galerie im Städel, 1983 30 x21cm, 4pp announcement for a solo show with a major sculpture "Bergkonig 1958 - 1961" in bronze. Originally planned in 1958, it is an early work by Beuys with a "crown" above a mass that suggests a fallen figure (perhaps having been decapitated). Five b/w images of the work (including a sketch and painting) along with a text in German by Klaus Gallwitz and a biography of the artist with a small portrait. This example has been rubber stamped with a Haupstrom stamp in blue and signed in pencil on the front by Beuys. VG+.