In the chronologies you find appended to Japanese art books, it looks something like this: Title: "Joseph Beuys Exhibition"; Dates: June 2 — July 2, 1984; Venue: Seibu Art Museum, Tokyo
Of course, chronologies don't convey the mood that surrounded an art exhibition, or peoples' reactions to it. This one you can imagine would have been popular with art students. Students tend to like shows by artists whose fame precedes them, and no one's fame preceded him quite like Joseph Beuys, the media-savvy German whose very persona — including his "uniform" of blue jeans, white shirt, fishing vest and fedora — was an element of his practice.
Artsy types would have come to the Beuys show for the same reason. They no doubt gazed knowingly over his mysterious creations: a two-piece suit made of felt, a lard-covered newspaper stuffed in a jar, a video of Beuys lecturing about art to a rabbit.
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