QuotesCosmos
pp. 62-63; Also cited in: Video Data Bank, School/Art Institute Chicago, (1981) Profile, Volume 1
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But I saw the relationship between people, I saw their thoughts, I saw their kind of expressionistic behavior in every difficult situation. I saw all the time the unclearness in the psychological condition of the people. You know, that was the time called the 'Roaring Twenties' and I felt that this expressionistic behavior, this unformed quality of soul power and emotion of life.. .I saw it, that it would lead to a kind of catastrophe. That was my general feeling.

— Joseph Beuys

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "But I saw the relationship between people, I saw their thoughts, I saw their kind of expressionistic behavior in every difficult situation. I saw all the time the unclearness in the psychological condition of the people. You know, that was the time called the 'Roaring Twenties' and I felt that this expressionistic behavior, this unformed quality of soul power and emotion of life.. .I saw it, that it would lead to a kind of catastrophe. That was my general feeling." in the context of "pp. 62-63; Also cited in: Video Data Bank, School/Art Institute Chicago, (1981) Profile, Volume 1" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

Quote Image
Source: Wikiquote: "Joseph Beuys" (Quotes, 1980s, Interview with Kate Horsefield, 1980: 'Interview with Kate Horsefield, 1980': Republished in: Joseph Beuys, Carin Kuoni. Joseph Beuys in America: Energy Plan for the Western Man. New York, 1993) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app

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Joseph Beuys

About Joseph Beuys

Joseph Beuys (May 12, 1921 – January 23, 1986) was a German conceptual artist, who produced work in a number of forms including sculpture, performance art, video art and installations. He was inspired by the ideas of Rudolf Steiner and the French artist Yves Klein. Beuys was an important teacher of famous neo-expressionist German artists as Jörg Immendorff, Walter Dahn, Anselm Kiefer and Blinky Palermo. Beuys held a lot of lectures in the U.S. Beuys enlarged the area of art to the whole life of mankind; everybody is an artist. He introduced the notion of social sculpture.