Untitled
1976
ink
From the collection of Museum of Modern Art
1976
ink
From the collection of Museum of Modern Art
Untitled is a 1976 ink by Joseph Beuys, depicting paris, held at Museum of Modern Art.
You see a big sheet of paper covered in smudgy gray ink, a few wobbly pencil lines, and red rubber-stamp marks that look like they were pressed on by hand. Beuys made this in 1976 while he was teaching in Düsseldorf. He often used everyday stuff—fat, felt, stamps—to talk about healing and memory after the war. The stamps here spell out “Initiation Gauloise,” a phrase tied to a Celtic ritual, but he never explained what it meant. If you like the way simple marks can feel alive, look up the technique of lithography.
