100 Years of Beuys:

A Tribute

These musical performances by Damon Smith and David Dove were recorded on September 24 2021 at Project Row Houses in Houston TX. This program in tribute to Artist Joseph Beuys was developed by Goethe Pop Up Houston and presented in cooperation with Project Row Houses.

The first piece, “Variations on Double Bass, 1961,” was created by Benjamin Patterson, a contemporary of Joseph Beuys, the only African-American founding member of the Fluxus art-movement and will be interpreted by Damon.

The second piece, titled “Ausfegen” (Sweeping Up) was conceived by Damon Smith as a musical tribute to Joseph Beuys’ own performance action of the same name which took place following the 1972 Worker’s Day Demonstrations in Karl-Marx-Platz in West-Berlin. In this action, Joseph Beuys along with two foreign art students, took brooms in hand and swept up the debris left behind by the previous day’s demonstrations. David Dove joins Damon on the trombone.