Joseph Beuys show in London centres on grotesque 'Bathtub for a Heroine'

An exhibition at the Thaddaeus Ropac gallery in London places Joseph Beuys's massive sculpture Bathtub at its centre; the show is titled Bathtub for a Heroine. The Bathtub is described as a steampunk metal tank with protruding pipes and valves, its interior rumpled like human flesh and the whole structure resting on a giant mammoth tooth.

The work, cast from a design Beuys developed between 1961 and 1985 and cast in 1987, is presented in the review as immersing viewers "in the black bile of modern history," its pipes linked metaphorically to the "fetid sewer" of the 20th century's worst horrors. Andy Warhol portraits that complement the exhibition, though not formally part of it, are said to capture Beuys's gaunt, ravaged face under the hat he wore to hide burns sustained in a plane crash while serving in the Luftwaffe; Beuys was born in 1921 and, the review notes, "was the 'perfect' age to fight for Hitler and he did, with the wounds to prove it." The exhibition also includes works such as Lead Woman (1949), which the review likens to Palaeolithic Venus figures, and Mammoth Tooth, Framed (1961), a real mammoth tooth supporting a small copper bathtub that functions as a maquette for the central work.

Dreamy watercolours like Female Figure (1954) and Animal Woman (1949) are presented as attempts to redeem Germanic mythic figures such as the Rhinemaidens.

Key Topics

Culture, Joseph Beuys, Bathtub Sculpture, Thaddaeus Ropac, Mammoth Tooth, Lead Woman