Joseph Beuys (*1921 in Krefeld, †1986 in Dusseldorf) is one of the most influential artists of the postwar era. With his theory of the Social Sculpture he intended to transfer art from the art institutions into real life. The much-cited expression “everyone is an artist” is to be understood as an appeal that principally every human being can be creative. The expansion of art into life, by transferring the plastic process into society, for Beuys, in logical consequence, resulted in socio-political actions. In this sense for example, he relocated, as a contribution to documenta 5, the office of the Organisation für direkte Demokratie (organization for direct democracy) to Kassel. Similarly, Beuys with his song Sonne statt Reagan (sun instead of Reagan) spoke out against the rearmament policy of Ronald Reagan. His musical performances were presented at rallies of the peace movement and in the TV show Bananas on ARD television. From 1961 to 1972, Beuys was a professor at the Kunstakademie Dusseldorf. He was a multiple documenta participant (1964, 1968, 1972, 1977, 1982) and took part in the 1976 Venice Biennale. The first major retrospective was already held during his lifetime, in 1979 / 1980, at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. In 1986, he received the Wilhelm Lehmbruck Award of the City of Duisburg. His works are included in the major international public and private collections and have been shown in numerous solo and group exhibitions.