Words & Pictures Contemporary Hieroglyphs
JOSEPH BEUYS The great twentieth-century artist Joseph Beuys draws on traditional notions of the magical symbol, the hieroglyph, or the emblem in order to affect change in the world. His chalkboard-drawing actions are a direct reference to theurgic activities of Renaissance magicians and philosophers. He signed his name using variations on the theme of emblematics.
See Markus Brüderlin, Ulrike Groos, Holger Broeker, Aleida Assmann, and Mario Merz. Rudolf Steiner and Contemporary Art. Köln: DuMont, 2010, and Steiner, Rudolf, Walter Kugler, Taja Gut, Martina Maria Sam, and Wolfgang Zumdick. Blackboard Drawings 1919– 1924. Forest Row: Rudolf Steiner Press, 2003. 67