Beuys Will Be Beuys

People picture their parents' generation as dull and conformist, and yet there was brilliant, Technicolor strangeness exploding out of all corners of the last half of the twentieth century. Take German conceptual artist Joseph Beuys, who created performances in which he explained his drawings to a dead rabbit while his face was smeared with honey and gold leaf, shaved a man in the Centre George Pompidou and created his own myth about being saved by Tatars on the plains of Crimea. Beuys was reviled by some, embraced as a shaman of the human spirit by others. If you're musing, "What a great party guest he must have been," now's your chance to find out if you're correct: A rare filmed interview of Beuys opens White Flag Projects' (4568 Manchester Avenue; 314-531-3442 or www.whiteflagprojects.org) new monthly cocktail party/interview series, Drinks. Upcoming installments feature Buckminster Fuller and Allen Kaprow. Admission is free, doors open at 5 p.m. for the cocktail portion, and the interview screens at 6 p.m.
Wed., Oct. 8, 2008