Joseph Beuys

 Born 1921 - 86
This German artist was also a sculpture, draughtsman, creator of action-performances and a political leader and teacher.

As an artist his interests in Christianity, zoology and mythology helped Beuys to develop the unique symbolized taste within his work.
When the second world war broke out he was sent almost straight from school and into the German air force where he served as a dive-bomber pilot until he crashed in Crimea where tales were told about how he was looked after by Tartars who used fat and felt to keep him warm. Such materials were later used by Beuys in his sculptures.
From 1962 he was a part of the Fluxus movement; a group of artists, composers and designers who they blended different artistic medias and disciplines to open up the definition of just what art could be. It then followed in 1963 that Beuys started to give action-performances using dead hares , fat and felt.

With this artist, he's used materials that represent and help recreate his past and the tales of his life in his sculptures/installations. I think that by linking the materials that you use in your art to the subject matter of it will only strengthen your piece and I think that I will take inspiration from this  and try to incorporate it into my work.

Examples of Beuys work...

 

 

'I like America and America likes me'

 

 

This piece by Joseph Beuys was a performance piece. It consisted of Beuys going to America and spending eight hours in a room alone with a coyote over a period of three days. However even though Beuys flew to America he didn't want to see any of America or even set foot on American soil and so from the plain Beuys was transported in an ambulance and then carried on a stretcher to the room in a block of flats where only then did he get up, and only to see the coyote. Again he used the felt material from his past in this piece when he wrapped him self in it at times to protect himself from the wild coyote. By the end of the three days Beuys was able to hug the coyote who had grown familiar with him and he then returned to Germany again without setting a foot on American soil.  

Beuys wanted to isolate himself and see nothing but the coyote, I don't fully understand this piece but the idea of going to another country and not even stepping on its ground and isolating yourself from the country I find intriguing.