The Broad in Los Angeles is currently presenting Joseph Beuys: In Defense of Nature, an art exhibition bringing together over 400 artworks by the late German artist and teacher Joseph Heinrich Beuys. The show is on from November 16, 2024 – March 23, 2025, and coincides with the reforestation effort called Social Forest: Oaks of Tovaangar, in partnership with North East Trees, a community-centred non-profit organisation that undertakes conservation projects in Los Angeles. In Defense of Nature is organised by Sarah Loyer, curator and exhibitions manager at The Broad, along with art historian and Beuys scholar Andrea Gyorody. The duo connected with STIR to explore Beuys’ practice and highlight the connection between the retrospective exhibition and the reforestation project.

Joseph Beuys (1921 – 1986) was born into a politically and economically fraught Germany following its defeat in the First World War (1914 – 1918). He was swept up in German nationalism and eventually joined the Air Force during the Second World War (1939 – 1945). Beuys served throughout the war as a gunner and alleged that he was shot down in 1943 over Crimea. For many years he created a fable that he was rescued by nomadic Crimean Tatars, whose land the Germans had occupied and whose movements were limited by being caught in the crossfire between the Germans and the Soviets. The artist would say that he was unconscious for much of the two weeks he spent in the care of the Tatars, and that they wrapped his body in animal fat to preserve his natural heat until he was recovered by a German ground patrol. Though it is a myth, he has cited this as a point of origin for the humanist values and environmental advocacy for which his art practice is widely known today.

Beuys was attracted to multiples for their affordability and democratic distribution possibilities, which allowed them to act as vehicles of communication for his ideas… – Sarah Loyer, curator and exhibitions manager at The Broad and Andrea Gyorody, art historian and Beuys scholar

After the war, Beuys would go on to study art, gaining recognition through the 60s for his sculpture works and performance art. His work in both mediums challenges rational thinking and technocracy, which Beuys saw as the root of fascist ideologies. Throughout his career, the artist made use of natural material, such as animal fat, along with mass-produced objects like chairs. Through his works, he sought to introduce irrationality, imperfection and the raw, primal qualities of nature into contemporary art.

Many of the works Beuys produced are considered to be ‘multiples’, taking after an art term coined in 1959 by Romanian-Swiss artist Daniel Spoerri (1930 – 2024). These serially produced works are typically sold at lower prices than unique pieces. The curatorial duo discuss these works, telling STIR, “Beuys was attracted to multiples for their affordability and democratic distribution possibilities, which allowed them to act as vehicles of communication for his ideas, notably the concept of social sculpture and the related proposition that all people are artists, contributing to the sculpting of their social reality.” In the 1970s, Beuys developed the concept of social sculpture as a utopian idea that prompted the public to think creatively and create art out of the surrounding objects.

Beuys’ most famous artwork is 7000 Oaks , which the artist created for documenta 7 in Kassel, Germany, in 1982. The project saw extensive communal participation and was completed in 1987, a year after the artist’s death. 7000 Oaks intended to reconnect the people of Kassel—who had suffered heavy bombardment during the Second World War—with their environment. The curators tell STIR that it produced many multiples, such as photographs and paper shopping bags. 7000 Oaks also inspired Social Forest: Oaks of Tovaangar, which seeks to plant 100 native oak trees in Los Angeles’ Elysian Park, with five plantings in Kuruvungna Park as well. The project celebrates the heritage of the Tongva people, who have been indigenous to the Los Angeles basin for 7000 years and have a close association with oak trees. For the Tongva, oak acorns provide an essential source of sustenance and are celebrated through ritual dances. Because of American colonisation, the Tongva were displaced and suffered several systemic injustices, including the loss of their land. It was only in 1994 that the state of California officially recognised them as “the aboriginal tribe of the Los Angeles basin”; however, to this day, the Tongva lack federal recognition.

Besides North East Trees, Social Forest: Oaks of Tovaangar has been developed in collaboration with archaeologist Desireé Reneé Martinez and artist Lazaro Arvizu Jr., who are Tongva community leaders. As Loyer and Gyorody tell STIR, “‘Social Forest’ is shaped in recognition of the deep history of the Tongva people and in celebration of their thrivance—their radical prosperity and resistance, beyond base survival.” The project transposes Beuys’ view of nature as a site for communal participation and a source of collective healing in Los Angeles. It is an important exercise in direct action against environmental issues amidst the ongoing climate crisis. Simultaneously, In Defense of Nature presents us with a body of socially and environmentally conscious art produced in rejection of the ideologies that have persecuted and disenfranchised so many communities around the world, such as the Tongva.

‘Joseph Beuys: In Defense of Nature’ is on view from  November 16, 2024 – March 23, 2025, at The Broad, Los Angeles.