Joseph Beuys Complete Portfolio by Andy Warhol gathers six screenprints created between 1980 and 1983, each derived from a single Polaroid Warhol took of Joseph Beuys during their 1979 meeting in Düsseldorf. The prints feature Beuys in his iconic hat, repeated in quadrants or isolated against shifting fields of color, inversion, and diamond dust. Warhol’s compositions emphasize stark contrasts, crisp silhouettes, and the enigmatic intensity of Beuys’ gaze, turning the German artist into a Pop-era icon while retaining something of his mythic presence.
Origins and Context of the Joseph Beuys Complete Portfolio
Warhol produced the first half of the Joseph Beuys Complete Portfolio as a set of “states.” This is a printmaking term referring to permanent alterations made to a source image or plate between impressions. The concept fits neatly within Beuys’ own philosophy, which viewed art as fluid rather than fixed. Their meeting, although brief, brought together two of the most polarizing artistic figures of the era. At that moment, Warhol was a decade beyond Valerie Solanas’s assassination attempt and navigating criticism from those who believed his creative peak sat firmly in the 1960s. Meanwhile, Beuys was confronting academic disputes and political backlash in Germany, yet remained a towering presence in contemporary art.
Despite the differences in their approaches, both artists reshaped modern and post-modern art. Warhol reclaimed representational imagery from the dominance of Abstract Expressionism. He elevated everyday consumer goods and celebrity culture to the level of fine art. Similarly, Beuys challenged the boundaries of what art could be. He insisted that creativity was universal, famously declaring that “everyone is an artist.”
Visual Language and Structure of the Portfolio
Warhol’s depictions of Beuys are surprisingly restrained for such a significant encounter. The portfolio’s muted palette contrasts sharply with the extravagant color of contemporaneous works like Ten Portraits of Jews of the Twentieth Century and the expressive chromatic fields in his Goethe prints. Formally, these Beuys portraits connect more closely to the techniques seen in Warhol’s 1980 Shoes series, especially in their surface textures and tonal variations.
The works—242, 243, and 244—each feature four repeated portraits on a single canvas, sometimes with inverted color schemes that heighten their uncanny quality. Following this, the second set—245, 246, and 247—reduces the repetition to a single image per print. In addition, two of these prints include diamond dust, signaling Warhol’s growing experimentation with texture that would blossom in the Shoes series.
The Joseph Beuys Complete Portfolio includes FS II.242–247.
Video: Joseph Beuys meets Andy Warhol (1979, Hans Mayer Gallery, Düsseldorf).
Video: Joseph Beuys – How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare (1965, Galerie Schmela, Düsseldorf).
Photo credit: Warhol and Beuys, courtesy of Schellmannart.com.
