A recent visit to Kleve
Kalkar Museum displays early student carving by Beuys
On a recent visit to Kleve I decided to make a visit to the pretty town of nearby Kalkar.
To my surprise I learned that the Kalkar Museum housed an early student piece by Beuys. It is a headstone for the grave of local artist Heinrich Nauen and his wife.
The design is by Beuys' teacher at the Düsseldorf Kunstakademie, Edwald Mataré, but Beuys executed the work. A rather poor replica replaces the original in the local churchyard.
When I visit Kleve, a trip to the Museum Kurhaus Kleve is a must. This is now a fantastic museum which houses a permanent collection of the works of Beuys' teacher at the Düsseldorf Künstakademie Ewald Mataré. Whilst I was visiting there was also a very large exhibition of the works of Carl Andre, which ends 28th August 2011.
My main reason for visiting is that Beuys, in 1958, moved into an empty room on the ground floor and at the far end of the Kurhaus and used it as his studio until 1964. The museum owns some exquisite early sculptural works of Beuys. However these are not on display at the moment since this area of the Kurhaus is being re-developed to re-create his studio and display these pieces. Much of this re-building work is being paid for by public contributions and anyone interested can purchase a 'Beuys' Brick' for 65euros, which goes to supporting this venture. I felt it was such an important initiative that I wanted to contribute in this way. The promotional bricks have the form of one of Beuys' multiples 'Backstein für F.I.U'.
The Kurhaus Beuys Atelier Promotional Brick Backstein für F.I.U
The pictures below shows an exterior view, as seen today, of the ground floor room that Joseph Beuys had has his studio from 1958 -1964. The accompanying photograph by Fritz Gertlinger shows Beuys in this studio in 1958. Here he is producing the wooden cross and doors for the old church tower at Büderich.
The Kurhaus Kleve The extension taking place behind the Joseph Beuys atelier
Below you can see just how close Beuys' studio was to the landscape gardens laid out by Johann Moritz von Nassau-Siegen in the 17th Century, with the addition of a modern 'iron man'.
It is very likely that this childhood experience of a Spa Town, as stated by Caroline Tisdall, emerged in an element of his installation 'Tram stop', installed in the German pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 1976. 'On another radial axis is a bored hole, sunk down to the water of the lagoon below, and then on, 25 metres deep in all, so that it becomes an iron tube full of cold water. It makes a topographical link between the geological relationship of land above and water below in Beuys' native Cleves, on the Dutch border, and the lagoons of Venice.'
Below are shots of the Carl Andre exhibition and Mataré's 'Rider at a fast pace' on display in the Kurhaus.
