I just came across this work by Joseph Beuys while researching a Fluxus lecture… if I ever get around to it I resolve to compile a sizable selection of ’defaced money’ artworks. This piece is from 1979.
The irony of this particular work is the large, iconic artist’s signature that takes pride of place on the face of the note. This authorial statement, the form of a defacement, enacts a particular economic alchemy (such a suitable word in relation to Beuys’ oeuvre): it elevates it even closer to gold and exponentially further away from any intrinsic ‘use value’.
Perhaps, to give him credit, this was Beuys’ intention. Often though, his critical gestures were weighted heavily in favour of his own self-mythologisation.
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January 8, 2008 at 5:17 pm
noma08
I dont belive in what i see in your blog.
Unglaublisch!
I work since 2007 on money, and this year I’m beginning to blog it.
Plase, take a look there.
http://noma08.wordpress.com/
I’m sorry, ’cause the most is in italian.
But you can find a lot of german too.
Sprichst du Deutsch? Jetzt muss gehen. Aber ich komme am abend zurueck, dir meinen Werk zu erklaeren.
January 8, 2008 at 5:20 pm
noma08
Ps. thx very much for the quote (Beuys is for me so relevant!…) and the interesting post
January 8, 2008 at 5:47 pm
pip
Hi noma…
Thanks for your comments (I think) – unfortunately I speak neither German nor Italian and Babelfish couldn’t tell me if ‘unglaubisch’ was a compliment or not!
I like the look of your blog, too, and thanks for the linkup – right back at ya
January 8, 2008 at 10:55 pm
noma08
Babalfish (or Babelfisch ) is innocent, it was my fault: people from German say (write) “unglaublich”. Certainly not “unglaublisch”.
… Entschuldigung Herr Simmel (Sorry Mr. Simmel)…
Anyway, dont worry about “unglaubli(s)ch”, Pip… http://www.frasi.net/dizionari/tedesco-inglese/default.asp?L21=&vocabolo=unglaublich
I anticipate that i do not completely accord to u about Beuys’ self-mythologisation… I hope I can find time tomorrow to write “why” (“perché”, “warum”) and translate it in english…
January 9, 2008 at 12:26 am
100menschen100koepfe
Dear Pip,
nice blog, as I just discovered. You are an artist and work on money. I am an artist and worked in capitalism (venture capital, financing, currency management). This work of Beuys was my starting point to do so. Since two years I am back at my sculptural work, knowing that between art and capitalism is a much stronger link than obviously seen. Do you know the works of Bernd Lietaer, former hedge fonds manager and father of the ECU (European Currency System)? He now is professor for archetypical psychology in the states.
PS ‘unglaubisch’ (misspelled) means ‘unbelievable’. I think it was meant as a compliment.
January 10, 2008 at 12:50 am
noma08
Thx for add me in your blogroll (but check the link please, it’s not correct).
I try to expose my thoughts, but it’s hard for me: they are so deep, and my english doesn’t let me arrive there.
As I announced yesterday, I’ll try to explain why I think that the Beuys’s piece you show is not a form of selfmythologisation (not mainly).
For Beuys the act of making art is an act of freedom. Art make every artist free from social astricions. Free acts, free beheaviors.
Every man is an artist, so every man can look for freedom. He just have to understands that the “art is the capital” and money is almost nothing, or just an appareance, the phantôme created by a burocratical society that make individuals in the condition not to see themselves lied one-another.
So: its name (the signature) is just the symbol of the revolution he wants to begin.
… And being a symbol, he surely make a mythology, but not pointed on his personality.
Ps. The difference between Beuys’ and my work is that I do not consider money as almost nothing, and I don’t wait for a revolution, but I try, with NoMA ( remember the link http://noma08.wordpress.com ), to demythologize the symbol of artist making art on money and to demythologize the symbol of money using it as a simple drawing paper.
January 10, 2008 at 2:26 am
emmanuelepilia
Hi dudes…
I am italian too, and beginning with saying that sincerely i am interested to the search of noma08.
yours post me it seems that it is material precious for its search, and are curious of knowing if it will use it like idea…
January 11, 2008 at 10:36 am
pip
Hello everyone,
Thanks for all your comments, it’s great to see some kind of discussion happening.
Noma – thanks for pointing out the problem with your link. It should be fixed now. I’d like to see and hear more about your work… wish I could understand Italian! I think I know what you’re getting at with Beuys, and I don’t necessarily disagree. The work for me expresses a kind of perfect paradox about art, value, and legitimated statements of dissent. Or maybe it is more of an affirmative statement, as you point out – art as ’social capital’, to use the currently fashionable jargon.
100menschen100koepfe – welcome and thanks for the tip about Bernd Lietaer, I’m not familiar with his work. Sounds like you have a pretty interesting story to tell yourself!
January 12, 2008 at 9:30 am
noma08
eheh, the link at NoMA works… thx
Im prod u’re interesting in my work.
It begins in 2007.
All year long, I signed every 5 euro with the signature “R. Mutt 07″. But i didnt public it online.
This year I work with 5, 10 and 20 euro.
In 5 euros I make fakes and reproducions of last years pieces
In 10 euros I write, piece by piece, all the book of Simmel (the first one) about money. Then i translate it in italina on blog, and comment it, describing the experience of the exchange. ( this is the first one… http://noma08.wordpress.com/2008/01/08/d08000000001-u1752654066/ )
In 20 euro I quote litterally from history of art.
The reasons?
I’ll try to explain you later. Because u want to tryto be clearer about that… and I dont want to be too long
I say goodbye telling you that the next is your hounor…
January 12, 2008 at 10:46 am
pip
wow noma, very interesting! would love to see some images?
you might be interested in the work of an artist called Colin Darke… he’s from Northern Ireland. He worked for 3 years on transcribing Marx’s ‘Capital’ onto 480 2D objects, which were then laminated (he showed this at the Venice Biennale 2003)
For the last few years he has been engaged with making painted reproductions of these objects: the exhibition has just opened at Temple Bar Galleries and Studios, Dublin: http://www.templebargallery.com. I might do a post here about it at some point.
January 12, 2008 at 2:01 pm
noma08
Yes I know him, thx. And I appreciate his work.
At the (2003 , it was my second Biennale, and I was very young) time his work shot me, and now I can say why. The element I liked more (without knowing why, without a great teoretical basis) was what now I can refere to you as the postproduction theory by Bourriaud ( http://www.simondor.com/reference/bourriaud-postproduction.php ).
Yes, I love to have more images and info about him and about this field of “artistic argumentation”…
But for me there are two points that are more relevant, and that i try to put into “my” work (that is not really of mine – im not artist, in a not museum).
The didactical one (diffusion of the oeuvre, inviting to partecipate people discussing it and crticate)
The sperimental one (money as medium)
Anyway… your contribution (in terms of idea and parecipation) is very precious to me… thx
January 13, 2008 at 5:56 pm
S19104447985 ( V08000000001 ) « Not Museum of Art
[...] primi commenti integrerò quanto detto da Pip e da Apolide, due articoli che mi hanno offerto numerosi spunti di [...]
January 13, 2008 at 6:01 pm
noma08
And this is in your honour…
http://noma08.wordpress.com/2008/01/13/s19104447985-v08000000001/
(while this is the link at the image you have to see in large dimension…http://pics.livejournal.com/noma08/pic/00008ech)
January 14, 2008 at 5:51 pm
V0800000001 ( S19104447985 ) - Considerazioni su uno scambio apparentemente innocuo « Not Museum of Art
[...] La puntualizzazione concerne la demitologizzazione dell’artista… argomento di cui ho parlato commentato il blog di Pip, e che ora non ho voglia di riportare qui traducendolo… Chi avesse intenzione, se lo vada a leggere (per ora) nel mio pessimo inglese in quella sede. [...]
January 14, 2008 at 10:57 pm
knofblog
about KNOFLOOK
KNOFLOOK is an independent voice for contemporary art photography and other media, based in Amsterdam! and gives young dutch photography artists the change to spread there work in an magazine called KNOFLOOK!
So be quick and post your work on knofblog and we will make a selection, also enter some information about yourself!
January 15, 2008 at 5:29 pm
pip
I wish I understood Italian!
January 15, 2008 at 7:12 pm
noma08
I can’t belive you posted about NoMA!
I’ll make comment on that translating what I said about it in my blog.
So, we can see if you undestood italian.
July 14, 2009 at 3:24 pm
Louisa Lee
Hi,
I’m trying to get hold of a high-res version of the image above- Joseph Beuys, Kunst=Kapital, 1979. Do you might me asking which book you found this image in?
Many thanks,
Louisa
July 15, 2009 at 1:00 pm
si&s
hi Louisa,
it’s actually from a web search, I’m afraid I don’t have a print reference. Sorry I can’t help.
S