A special exhibition of the Art Museums Krefeld will begin at the Kaiser Wilhelm Museum in Krefeld on October 8, 2021. In Beuys and Duchamp, Artists of the Future, works by Joseph Beuys (1921 - 1986) and Marcel Duchamp (1887 - 1968), both of whom had a radical influence on the understanding of art of their time, will be juxtaposed for the first time as part of the Beuys anniversary year. The dialogue between the two seminal figures that has been set up here is anything but a random coincidence: Duchamp was of great importance to Beuys, who mentioned him more often than average in interviews and always seemed to regard him as a challenge.
Beuys himself had installed a room ensemble in the museum of his hometown Krefeld, from which the exhibition takes its course. It is one of the last installations that the artist built himself before his death. Moreover, the exhibition shows 150 loans from all over the world, which put the two luminaries and their respective cosmos in relation to each other.
From a purely historical point of view, not only Beuys but also Duchamp is rooted in the Krefeld institution: the first Duchamp solo exhibition in a German museum took place in 1965 in Haus Lange, one of Krefeld's two art houses. Seen in this light, the museum considers itself fundamental to the dissemination of Duchamp's work in 1960s Germany, a time when Duchamp had long been an impetus in the art world of the United States and Europe. Beuys's breakthrough, moreover, follows seamlessly from this point in time, at which Duchamp's life's work is already considered complete: In 1965, Beuys was just at the beginning of what would later be understood as a groundbreaking career. The unique contrast between Beuys and Duchamp can be visited until January 16, 2022.
