“The hare is my animal, extremely prolific and nimble, elusive and a crossover artist, at home up and down the steppe.“ Joseph Beuys.
Joseph Beuys is regarded the world over as one of the most important artists of the 20th century. But where exactly are his artistic origins? Where did his sources of strength lie? In January 1978, photographer Gerd Ludwig impressively captured how Beuys approached his past – in the city of Kleve and its Lower Rhine surroundings. There, where everything began for Joseph Beuys.
When Frank Mehring came up with the idea in 2021 of creating an installation with six of the Beuys photos by Gerd Ludwig in a large format in the exact same spot in the Lower Rhine landscape in which they were created in 1978, he connected it with a bike path. Freddy Langer took a ride on the bikeway for a day together with Mehring and Ludwig, and dedicated an essay to the tour. It is an amalgamation of conversations between the three gentlemen along the way as well as their bizarre encounters on the route with thoughts on art and ecology as well as reflections upon Joseph Beuys’ attitude towards nature.
In his text, focused on the biographical origins of Beuys in the Lower Rhine region, Mehring analyses how we can recognize the person behind the one-man brand Joseph Beuys and understand his significance for the digital generation today. He highlights how photography had been a vital tool for Beuys to permanently document his short-lived actions in the public space.
In Gerd Ludwig’s photos of Beuys on the Lower Rhine, Mehring sees a type of master key to discovering the very landscape that is at the center of Beuys’ life and work. With the photographs, Mehring deduces how Beuys drew his energy from this region, sharpened his ecological awareness, and developed the artistic vitality that catapulted him to the top of the international art world.
German-American photographer Gerd Ludwig is among the pioneering documentary photographers of our time. He studied under Prof. Otto Steinert at the legendary Folkwangschule (today: Folkwang University of the Arts) in Essen, Germany, and gained recognition in the late 1970s for his captivating reportages in GEO, ZEITmagazin, Stern, and others. Particularly notable are his artist portraits of Friedensreich Hundertwasser and Joseph Beuys.
After moving to the United States, he became a core member of the American magazine National Geographic for three decades. His dedicated coverage of the aftermath of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster is considered a milestone of modern photojournalism. He is the recipient of the University of Missouri Medal of Honor for his outstanding achievements in journalism and the Dr. Erich Salomon Award of the German Society for Photography. His photographs are exhibited in museums, galleries, and public spaces around the world.
Gerd Ludwig lives in Los Angeles today and focuses primarily on personal long-term projects. His books ‘The Long Shadow of Chernobyl’ and ‘Sleeping Cars’ have been published at Edition Lammerhuber.
FRANK MEHRIG is a Professor of American Studies at Radboud University in Nijmegen. His research focuses on the intersection of art, culture and politics in a transatlantic exchange. Among the numerous publications on the soft power of the Marshall Plan in photographs, films and exhibitions, his monograph entitled ‘The Democratic Gap’ (Winter, 2014), on the American promise of democracy in German emigration history, received the European Rob Kroes Award.
Frank Mehring’s latest work is dedicated to the life and work of the German-American artist Winold Reiss (Deutscher Kunstverlag, 2022). But Mehring’s contribution is not limited to academic circles. As an Americanist and honorary director of the Forum Arenacum museum, he is actively involved in building bridges between university and society. He is particularly committed to projects that use music and art as a key to opening up new perspectives on history and transnational cultures of remembrance for young people.
FREDDY LANGER, born in 1957, is an editor for Frankfurter Allgemeine. He was responsible for the travel column for 20 years and is in charge of photography for the culture section. For his own series entitled ‘Blind Date’, he has been photographing prominent artists, whom he asks to wear a sleeping mask, for more than forty years. He is the author of multiple books on the history of photography alongside his other great passion: hiking all over the world.
BEUYS LAND - Gerd Ludwig, Frank Mehring . 29.7 x 21 cm, 108 pages, 59 photos . German, English . Hardcover . 978-3-903101-99-9 . April 2024 . EUR 49.90
GoSee : edition.lammerhuber.at//beuys-land
GoSee : edition.lammerhuber.at