We are the Revolution

[La rivoluzione siamo Noi]

Close to life size, this photograph presents Beuys in his trademark ensemble of hat, fishing vest, jeans and leather boots. Striding purposefully toward the camera, he perfectly embodies the work’s revolutionary call.

This multiple is based on a poster that was issued on the occasion of Beuys’s first exhibition in Italy, which took place in Lucio Amelio’s Modern Art Agency in Naples in 1971.1 In connection with the opening, Beuys gave a lecture in which he provided information on the goals and activities of his Organisation for Direct Democracy Through Free Collective Referendum, which he had recently co-founded in Düsseldorf. He argued for the inception of a new democratic social order, that in keeping with the teachings of Rudolf Steiner would fulfil the ideals of the French Revolution. In We are the Revolution, this call for change is condensed into a catchy slogan, which reflected Beuys’s conviction that change can only be achieved through creative activity.


  1. Lucrezia De Domizio Durini, Beuys Voice, (Milan: Electa, 2011), 126–127. 

    Photo 1

    © Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen

    Katalog Museum Mönchengladbach 1967