Ligia Canongia ///

Romantic Resonances in the Work of Beuys and Barrio

In trying to establish a parallel between the work of Joseph Beuys and Artur Barrio, the connection that both have with certain aspects of romantic esthetics comes up immediately. After all, the crisis of the subject faced with the utilitarian values of new societies is still found at the core of their works.
At the foundation of romantic thought, which densely infiltrated the German idealistic tradition, the notion of freedom and individuality always clashed with the idea of a purely rational order and a mechanistic conception of the world. There was still an effort to individualize the subject as a contrast to the uniformity of the masses, as well as endow it with critical judgment in the face of reality.