IN THE MANNER OF JOSEPH BEUYS

The comment came after the incredible dinner at the enclave of Linda Beaumont and Steve Badanes on Whidbey Island.  Linda said, well, surely you know the work of Joseph Beuys?  And of course, I hadn’t.  I, for one, will never cease to be amazed about what I don’t know.  

Beuys is famous for his watercolors.  And what Linda was saying to me is that there is a simultaneity to some of his drawings.  Some of them do involve transparency, as the example shows below.   So one question becomes, just because there is transparency, does that make it a Transparent Drawing?  The end goal of these pages and the book is to knowledge holistic form.  In this regard, no, Beuys’ drawings do not rise to this level, as they do not resolve complete forms.  

“Basically I don’t call this work with colors watercolors or whatever.  First of all I call everything drawings.”  

One might say that there is implied holistic form in the example below.  We are, after all,  presented with two simultaneous shapes of the same form, separated by time.  Aren’t these the fundamentals of Transparent Drawing?  Yet form is not resolved.  And that’s all we’re talking about.  Don’t Assume Form.  Draw the form, the whole form.  An entire world awaits your discovery.  And this world is within you.  

For my drawing above, I tried, to the best of my ability, to draw like Joseph Beuys.  But I did it with the tools of Transparent Drawing.  I first fabricated a Form Combine.  Then, with Automatic Form, I generated a holistic construction, using the geometry established in the Form Combine.  I then tried to do what I think Beuys would have done, which is to apply a flat transparent tone over the paper.  I used a pastel pencil to make a thick, water enclosing, boundary line. Within these lines, I dropped in a thick water tone. I did two of these tones and then quit, as I was trying for the austerity of Beuys.

Did I succeed in all of this?  If success is at least the start of the generation of form, then quite possibly this worked.  But does my drawing look anything like Beuys?  Of course, the answer is, I am happy to say, no.  

It is always so helpful to me to have the input of others.  My humble thanks to Linda, as she was no doubt trying to help me.  Even though, I’m sure she was saying to herself, (with complete justification), what an idiot.  He writes this book called Transparent Drawing, and he is not even aware of Beuys.

1. Beuys, Joseph.  Early Watercolors.  W.W. Norton, New York / London.