Abstract

GUTIERREZ GALINDO, Blanca. Creativity and democracy: Joseph Beuys and the critique of political economy. An. Inst. Investig. Estét [online]. 2013, vol.35, n.103, pp.99-140. ISSN 0185-1276.

This article takes as its starting point the hypothesis that by situating the concept of work at the center of his "plastic theory", Joseph Beuys elaborates a critique of political economy on which he upholds his artistic program of extending art and social plastic. From this perspective the relationship between Marx's labor theory of value and the esthetic theory of Kant are explored. The former refers to the conditions of alienation of work in the capitalist system, the latter defines the conditions of autonomy on which art is based in modernity. On the basis of the analysis and development of these arguments an explanation is sought of the way in which the overcoming of the autonomy of art constitutes its politicization in the specific historical circumstances of Germany in the 1970s.

Keywords : Joseph Beuys; political economy; expanded art; plastic theory; avant-garde; marxism; civic movement.

        · abstract in Spanish     · text in Spanish     · Spanish ( pdf )