ART AND NATURE – JOSEPH BEUYS

On June 7, 2001, in the context of the Biennial of Venice, the President of the State Philatelic and Numismatic Company presented the stamp "Art and nature", a homage to Joseph Beuys, one of the most significant and emblematic characters in the history of art in the world after World War II. An Artist who believed that to defend nature was to defend man himself, and that to create a work of art was the purest of political gestures; Beuys devoted himself completely to this belief, becoming in turn also philosopher, politician and humanist. The stamp, issued on the occasion of the eighty-first anniversary of the birth of the German Maestro, was made from an image considered emblematic of the artistic concept of Beuys, made available by Lucrezia De Domizio Durini; the philatelic initiative is part of a much vaster project, promoted by the Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art of San Marino, including the show "Defense of Nature" organized in the rooms of the Logge dei Balestrieri from May 26 to September 30, 2001. Present in the most prestigious international reviews, from Documenta in Kassel to the Biennial in Venice, Beuys held an important anthological show at the Guggenheim in New York; his works are on view in the most important museums in the world. From 1971 until a few days before his death in 1986, his works were almost constantly on show in Italy: it was here that he found the most fertile terrain to spread his "credo" of love and brotherhood, a spirit of collaboration among free men.

	Date of issue: September 10, 2001
	Value: one L. 2.400 (€ 1,24) stamp in sheets of 20
	Print run: 120,000 stamps
	Printing: offset by Cartor Security Printing
	Designs by Franco Filanci
	Stamp size: 28.5 x 40 mm - Perforation 13 x 13
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