Joseph Beuys (*1921 in Krefeld, †1986 in Düsseldorf) is one of the most influential artists of the post-war era. With his theory of the Social Sculpture he tried to bring art into everyday life. The much-cited expression “everyone is an artist” is to be understood as an appeal that every human being should take creative action in order to change society. From 1961 to 1972, Beuys was professor of sculpture at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. The edition Ich kenne kein Weekend, offered by Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, contains a bottle of Maggi sauce as well as a stamped edition of the Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant from the famous Weekend-case (1971/1972). Of these briefcases 95 copies were originally planned, but only 75 could be realized, 10 of them as wooden boxes. The combination of a Maggi bottle and the book is a humorous homage to Kant being the main protagonist of the German Enlightenment, to whom Beuys felt spiritually connected.

His works were presented at, among others, Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin (2008); Tate Modern, London (2005); Centre Pompidou, Paris (1994); Kunsthaus Zurich (1993); Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin (1988); Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (1979); Venice Biennale (1976); documenta, Kassel (1982; 1977; 1972; 1968; 1964).