by Maike Grün
This article was presented at the IIC congress The Object in Context: Crossing Conservation Boundaries in Munich, 2006.
The Munich installation artwork Das Ende des 20. Jahrhunderts (The End of the Twentieth Century, 1984) by Joseph Beuys consists of 44 pillared basalt blocks. A cone was drilled out of each block, and then reinserted with clay and felt. The prepared stones were installed in the Haus der Kunst in Munich by the artist in 1984 and relocated to the Pinakothek der Moderne in 2002. Today, some of the materials used for the artwork are very deteriorated. The stones also show a variety of peculiarities and traces of unknown origin. All this has necessitated a discussion of the readability of the artwork and its conservation requirements. In this paper, the provenance of the materials used and the creation of the work are described through discussions with those who participated in its creation as well as with the aid of scientific investigations and descriptions of the materials. This provides a descriptive picture of its process of creation and its state of preservation. A conservation concept is developed based on these contextual insights.
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This article was presented at the IIC congress The Object in Context: Crossing Conservation Boundaries in Munich, 2006. The text was first published in the IIC 2006 congress preceedings. The permission to publish this article on the INCCA website has kindly been given by the IIC. This article may only be downloaded for personal use. It may not be redistributed. Permission for redistribution must be requested from IIC.