In this podcast, Irish artists Maud Cotter and John Carson reflect on their experiences of having attended Joseph Beuys’ blackboard lectures in Cork and Belfast in 1974.
In 1974 Joseph Beuys exhibited A Secret Block for a Secret Person in Ireland at Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin, and the Ulster Museum, Belfast. During several visits to the island that year, Beuys presented lectures and discussions in several cities.
In this episode, Irish artists Maud Cotter and John Carson reflect on their experiences of having attended Joseph Beuys’ blackboard lectures in Cork and Belfast while studying at the Crawford College of Art and Design and the University of Ulster, respectively. Maud Cotter joins Logan Sisley, curator of the exhibition Joseph Beuys: From the Secret Block to Rosc on view at Hugh Lane Gallery from July 2021 to April 2022 in conversation and John Carson joins longtime friend and fellow artist Sean Lynch, as they consider the effects that the mythic and monumental figure of Beuys had–and didn’t have–on young artists studying across Ireland in 1974.
The exhibition Joseph Beuys: From the Secret Block to Rosc curated by Logan Sisley reflected on Beuys’ relationship to Ireland, where he saw Irish myth, literature and landscape as sources for cultural renewal and healing, and includes three blackboards that Beuys drew on during his lecture at Hugh Lane Gallery. It also featured photographs by Caroline Tisdall, who documented this event and many of Beuys’ Irish excursions. As part of the celebration of the centenary of the birth of Joseph Beuys, Goethe-Institut Ireland and Hugh Lane Gallery collaborated on an education programme of talks, film screenings and events. ‘The Irish Blackboards: Reflections on Joseph Beuys’ 1974 Visit to Ireland’ podcast was produced and edited by Kimberly Griffith Walsh as part of the Hugh Lane Gallery’s Education programme, 2021.