Lot number 484 - Auction 140
'KREUZ' (C. 1950/51)

JOSEPH BEUYS
1921 Krefeld - 1986 Düsseldorf <

'CROSS' (C. 1950/51)

Bronze, with darkbrown patina. L. 19,5 cm, w. 12,5 cm, weight. 0,625 kg. Multiple embossing in the shape of a cross on the reverse. Minimally with traces of oxidation.

Provenance: Ehlen Collection, Bonn.

In the literature, the bronze 'Kreuz (ca. 1950/51)' in the Museum Kurhaus Kleve collection is the only known version in a public collection to date.
Refer to the literature on the Kleve example, e.g.:

- 'Kreuz Zeichen. Religiöse Grundlagen im Werk von Joseph Beuys', exh.-cat. Aachen/Ratingen 1985/1986, cat.-no. 13, ill. no. 15, p. 24., p. 104.
- 'Das Kreuz als Universalzeichen bei Joseph Beuys', ed. by Wouter Kotte, Ursula Mildner, Stuttgart 1986, without page numbers; - 'Joseph Beuys. Skulpturen und Objekte', exh.-cat. Martin-Gropius Bau, Berlin 1988, ed. by Heiner Bastian, ill. p. 121, cat.-no. 7, p. 232;
- Exh.-cat. 'Getlinger photographiert Beuys 1950 - 1963', ed. by Dumont Buchverlag, on the occasion of the exhibition in Städtisches Museum Kalkar (14. October - 11. November 1990), Kalkar 1990, ill. p. 31; - 'Mein Rasierspiegel - Von Holthuys bis Beuys', ed. by Guido de Werd on behalf of the Freundeskreises Museum Kurhaus and Koekkoek-Haus Kleve e.V., on the occasion of the exhibition in Museum Kurhaus Kleve (9. September 2012 - 13. Januar 2013), Kleve 2012, p. 294f, ill. p. 238, no. 2.38;
- 'Joseph Beuys. Werklinien', ed. v. Valentina Vlasic, published by Freundeskreis Museum Kurhaus and Koekkoek-Haus Kleve e.V., on the occasion of the exhibition in Museum Kurhaus Kleve (1. May - 4. September 2016), Kleve 2016, p. 274, ill. p. 188, no. 32.

Joseph Beuys was born in Krefeld in 1921. He spent his youth in Kleve and received a Catholic education. He abandoned his plan to study medicine and decided to volunteer for military service in 1941. He trained first as a radio operator and then as a fighter pilot. In 1944, Beuys was shot down over the Crimea. The crash and the subsequent period of recovery inspired him to create a legend, which is said to explain his turn to the materials fat and felt. Back home, he began his studies at the Düsseldorf Art Academy in 1947. He attended the sculpture class, first with Josef Enseling and then with Ewald Mataré, whose master student he became in 1952.

The cross motif is central to Joseph Beuys' work. Like the works made of felt and fat, it forms an important starting point for clarifying his theory of the sculptural and his expanded concept of art (cf. Horst 1998). During his time as a student at the Düsseldorf Art Academy, Beuys focussed on the central themes of the figure of Christ and the motif of the cross. The influence of his teacher Ewald Mataré is evident here, who at this time accepted numerous ecclesiastical commissions in which Beuys was involved, including the south portal of Cologne Cathedral and the west window of Aachen Cathedral. The bronze cross presented here dates from the first phase of Joseph Beuys's work, during which he created a series of sculptural works, including hand crosses, processional crosses, tombstones with crosses and, in 1958, the cross for the Büderich memorial as well as numerous drawings.

To date, the bronze cross from 1950/1951, which is on permanent loan from the Fritz Getlinger family to the Museum Kurhaus collection in Kleve, is the only known example in a public collection. In addition to the bronze version, there is also a plaster cast in the Kleve collection. The version of the cross presented here for the first time on the auction market comes from the Rhenish private collection of Dr Ehlen in Bonn. The bronze cross shows the body of Christ in the form of a cross, without visible beams behind it. The body with its outstretched arms and slightly bent legs gives the figure a slightly floating appearance, which shows the motif of the resurrection. The head tilted upwards to the side emphasises the upward character of the depiction. The mark on the chest resembles the depiction of a dove, as Beuys chose for the resurrected Christ in the tomb for Gerhard and Maria van der Grinten in 1961. The notched lines can be interpreted as robe lines. On the back of the bronze cross, signs in the shape of a cross can be recognised in the area of the head, the heart and the legs. In the literature, the bronze cross is described as a decorative cross for a baptismal font (cf. Kotte/Mildner 1986, p. 36).

Beuys' early exploration of the depictions of Christ is an "attempt to first approach the spiritual whole from this side, which is familiar to one [...] from tradition. [...] I have tried to see whether there is any possibility at all of depicting something like this. [...] This experiment came to an end around 1954. That's actually the end of it. And that's when I realised that I couldn't achieve Christianity itself through this depictive way with this Christ figure. At least not through me. [...] But we realised that I would have to go much further methodically." (Joseph Beuys (1984), quoted in Mennekes 1996).

The motif of the cross changes from a Christian understanding in his early work to an energetic universal symbol in Joseph Beuys' subsequent art.

We thank Valentina Vlasic for her kind information.