Phantom of the Oprah

”On the one hand, he gambled on everything that traditionally secured the value, claim to validity, and hence authority of art and artists, while on the other hand he assumed the traditional patriarchal position of the messianic proclaimer of ultimate truths”. The question in regard to Joseph Beuys is lies somewhere in between.Like Maimonides, there is a need for the visual art edition of ” A guide For the Perplexed”.A How to checklist to make sense of the inner conflicts and unresolved contradictions between public personna and inner being of  Joseph Beuys.

”To be certain, art offers answers. Its strength, however, often lies in its unresolved problems. In his statements about his own work, Joseph Beuys absolutely inundated his listeners and readers with answers. As a consequence, the inner tensions and unanswered questions at the heart of his oeuvre are scarcely recognized. An unconditional acceptance of Beuys’ interpretive authority over his own practice has caused the discourse surrounding the oeuvre to fail to touch on a central unresolved question within it : the question of authority itself…On the one hand he incessantly attacked traditional notions of the authority of the work, the artist, and the art professor, with his radical, liberating, and humorous opening up of the concept of art….On the other hand, however, it seems that in the presentation of his own interpretative discourse, Beuys regularly fell back on the very tradition of staging artistic authority with which he was trying to break.”

 

Beuys was badly burnt in an airplane crash in the second world war while flying missions on the Eastern front as a Luftwaffe pilot. In particualar his face , was extensivly disfigured, leaving almost a mask as public figure. A visual artist phantom of the opera. His face was in effect a mask. He is an Erik, from Phantom of the Opera, a disfigured genius, the ”Angel of Music” who has turned to visual art. The Beuys we see, is a projection and the art that is created is that of Christine Daaes, the heroine who must choose between the two suitors, the ” opera ghost”, the Beuys we don’t see, the extorting, terrorizing and authoritative figure based on Teutonic mythology and his creation, the Beuys we associate with, the liberating, healing humanist with universal vision. the latter, a liberating approach to conventions of sculpture and to the possibilities of art. The former, an appropriator of the history of those ideas and impregnating them with mythical authority.

During a production of ”Faust”, Beuys the Phantom, in a pact with the devil, kidnaps the art ( Christine ) and persuades her to betroth him if not he will bring humankind to its knees in subjugation. The rescue by Beuys2, the creation, and the mysterious ”Persian”, from the phantom Beuys past, attempt to rescue the art, but are trapped in the torture room. The art, makes nice with Beuys, kisses him and is liberated to rejoin the created Beuys.Whether she made the appropriate decision is a debate for the ages. 

The split personality whereby Beuys own creation of himself escapes him and assumes a position putting his creator in conflict and contradiction….’‘ the artistic quality and historical significance of Beuys’ work are not, as the common view would have it, based upon a realizing of his declared intentions, but rather upon his staging of an unresolved conflict between the urge to demolish authoritarian definitions of what artists are traditionally supposed to be and the need to recoup certain aspects of fascination with the auratic authority of the artistic act and the artist’s role. ”

The mismatch between the two Beuys is the feeling that lies at the soul of horror in his work, the calm of the mortuary and the evocational aspect of malevolent intelligence lurking behind acts shrouded in obscurity.There is a naturalistic evocation of a godless world, somewhere between reality, and a suspense hanging without conclusion. The sense of the deformity chasing the beauty who has betrayed them. It is the unseen rumour of destruction which is so powerful in Beuys work; those glimpses of a world out of balance, diabolical and somehow possible which prove most disturbing. The suspense is unsettling, not the art itself. Its the expectations that create the mood,a form of psychological cannibalism. In the Phantom of the Opera metaphor, where the art tears the mask off Beuys revealing a hollow, horrid face. The horror found in the perversion of nature. Beuys art drags the viewer into a mood of vulnerability, surrounded by unexplained forces, that keep you lingering there, paralyzed, frozen and unsure.

The idea of historical revisionism in Beuys work, makes it all  cushy and cuddly, ready made for the Oprah Winfrey feeding frenzy at commercial turnstiles is what is what is most horrific, a very real suggestion that nightmares can come to life. A human sacrifice of Beuys2, where Oprah, A modern avatar for a phantom ,where as authority figure,recognized for her immense humanitarian gestures,she shares the messianic mantle of the original Beuys, welcoming him into the studio.Imagine… Oprah’s Book Club being superceded by Oprah’s Visual Art Club, devoted to dredging up old ghosts and rusty spirits; bringing obscure works of art to a popular attention nea

u.Check local listings. With regard to Beuys ”OpenYour Wounds” work in 1976:

”Strictly speaking, therefore, there can only be one person who is entitled to show his wounds: the Savior himself. The title of the work, however, is an appeal addressed to another person. Beuys here effectively changes the monologue of messianic revelation into a dialogue and thus multiplies the available speaking positions: anyone who feels addressed by the appeal is here invited to adopt the messianic position. This moment of multiplication is in fact also the primary formal characteristic of the installation. All of its elements are doubled…” ( Jan Verwoert )