First of all, compliments to the interesting lecture of Mr. Blake. Mr. Blake is stating or suspecting that there's something in German thought that is deeply deshumanizing. Well, Marx ought to be taken here into consideration, because he is German and there is a proximity between Blakes' and Marx's position towards certain German idealism. Mr. Blake is suspecting that there's too much clues in Beuys' works boundary conditions to consider Beuys laden by this kind of suspect spiritual feeling. I think that Blake is underestimating the projects with social intentions Beuys carried on during his career. We also can remind (what is clearly an approximation with the work with dustmen of the female artist that Blake quote) that Beuys used to say that dustmen are real artists. So, I think that the point is that Beuys is more "Marxist" and less right-wing idealist than it seems, but he is not materialist as Marxism is. It's a problem that Blake identify correctly, but I would not say that Beuys seems he doesn't feel uncomfortable with material problems of real life in the name of an abstract mysticism. He is really convicted that the only solution is to free the individual and collective or shared creative power of mankind. He would agree with Marx both critique to specialization and property, but he couldn't be Marxist when it is denied a mystic conception of reality. Specialization and property, two pragmatic concepts that are serious candidates to be deshumanizing and always present in USA mainstream thought! (I apolgize myself in advance for english mistakes).
Im not quite sure what Blake is driving at here. Is he against mythology or mythologising in general? Does he think the cleaner who "cleaned up" the Beuys bath should be applauded for it? Of cause we shouldnt forget Beuys' military service during WWII when appraising his work, but by the same token, we shouldnt forget that all US based rtists have benefited from US Imperialism whether they served in the military or not.
