Boundary Breaker

Through his vast body of work, the late German artist Joseph Beuys blurred the boundary between artist and theorist. Opening March 13 at Mitchell-Innes & Nash in New York, a new retrospective offers an intimate glimpse into Beuys’s masterful oeuvre and influence, alluding to many of his more radical conceptual ideas such as social sculpture, in which he considered society itself as one collaborative work of art. The month-long show will present past performances as well as installations and sculptural works that date between 1965 and 1986, the year of his death. Included in this selection is one version of Beuys’s iconic 1970 piece Filzanzug (Felt Suit), a tailored suit that was modeled after his personal garments and operates as something of a ghostly self-portrait of an artist whose impact is still being felt today.