Catalog raisonné Schellmann 227 IKARUS photo edition, Paderborn

Uniqueness? No thanks! – signals the art of reproduction à la Beuys, and yet many multiples created by Beuys manage to escape the “shattering of the aura”, the fate that Walter Benjamin predicted for the mass-reproduced work of art. Because Beuys, the rascal, often cleverly inscribes the auratic, breath of air and air of life at the same time, into his mass-produced products: by signing whatever comes his way. Stamping, dating, numbering and signing – for Beuys, all of this is not just a quirk but also a means to an end. “Even when I write my name, I am drawing,” Beuys once said about the creative aspect of signing. Through the signature, the mass character of a multiple suddenly and unexpectedly shifts towards the original: the mass-produced product becomes unique, unique in the here and now.