Twenty-four years after his death, the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen is paying homage to the artist, educator and political activist Joseph Beuys (1921-1986) in Düsseldorf, the city with which he is primarily associated. Often the object of intense debate and much hostility during his lifetime, today Beuys ranks among the 20th century's most important and most innovative figures of the artistic avant-garde and is often mentioned in the same breath as Marcel Duchamp and Andy Warhol. This companion book shares the exhibition's goal of displaying "the complete Beuys" by presenting selected works from all phases and artistic media of his multifaceted œuvre.