Ensemble: Chapter 5: Beuys and Goethe, 1969–1986, Düsseldorf-Kassel-Berlin / Hoofdstuk 5: Beuys en Goethe / Chapitre 5: Beuys et Goethe
©image: M HKA
At documenta 5 in 1972 Byars appeared on the roof of Museum Fridericianum, calling German names through a golden megaphone to the audience below, and Joseph Beuys invited the public to discuss how to reshape society through creative activity in his Bureau für die direkte Demokratie. Both artists were concerned with the role of art in society, but in diametrally opposite ways. That is why Byars chose Beuys, the first German he ever met, as his antagonist. Both artists continue in the tradition of contemplating east and west as a unity, much like Goethe.
‘Once I read a Baudelaire sentence I loved. He said it was March 23rd or something and he did not have a new pair of lavender, lilac silk gloves. So, he had this wonderful elegant feeling about springtime too. This great man Joseph Beuys would buy a new rubber glove for spring. (Haha). A green one. He came to one of my activities once when I was in the gold suit and he had his fishing suit and the green glove in his pocket. Beuys was one who truly understood all of these things I think.’
From an interview with James Lee Byars by Wolf Günter Thiel (1995), in: ‘James Lee Byars - The White Mass’, Keulen 2004
Works
>Photograph of performance 'Calling German Names' at documenta 5, Kassel, 1972.Photography, black and white photograph.
>James Lee Byars, The Golden Tower, 1974.Other, silkscreen on paper, 192 x 60.3 cm.
>James Lee Byars, The Black German Flag, 1974.Object, black silk, 250 x 470 cm.
>Photograph of James Lee Byars and Joseph Beuys at the 'Je/Nous. Wij/Ik' exhibition, Musée d'Ixelles, Brussels, 1975.Photography, black and white photograph.
>James Lee Byars, Both, 1978.Sculpture, marble with engraved gilded text, 275 x 138 x 5 cm.
>James Lee Byars, The 5 Continent Documenta 7, 1979.Other, black silk paper and white square, 110 x 48 cm, 2.5 x 2,5 cm.
>James Lee Byars, James Lee Byars interviewed by Paul De Vree at Documenta 7 in front of 'The Golden Tower', 1982.Audio and visual equipment, audio fragment from 'kroniek', 00:10:05.
>James Lee Byars, The Golden Tower with Changing Tops, 1982.Object, gold-plated bronze, 2 parts, 340 cm, Ø 80 cm.
>Photographs of a spontaneous performance by Joseph Beuys and James Lee Byars on the latter's work 'Both' at the opening of 'to the happy few', 1983.Photography, black and white photographs.