About this artwork
The neat rolls of grey felt on painted wood inside this vitrine are intended as a model for an 'environment'. Felt insulates and absorbs, representing protection but also a sense of constriction, like being suffocated. The same type of felt rolls are seen in the 'environment' 'Plight' (1958/1985), now in the Pompidou Centre, in which the walls and ceiling are covered with felt to create a stifling atmosphere. Beuys used felt in an infamous 'action' performed the same year this model was made. 'The Chief' saw the artist being wrapped in a felt blanket, fighting claustrophobia to lie practically still, as if in a coffin, for a nine-hour period.
Updated before 2020
see media-
artist:Joseph Beuys (1921 - 1986) German
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title:Entwurf für ein Filzenvironment [Model for a Felt Environment]
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date created:1964
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materials:Wood, glass, felt, oil paint and lead
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measurements:184.00 x 168.00 x 84.00 cm (installed size); 63.00 x 70.00 x 22.00 cm (felt object size)
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object type:
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credit line:ARTIST ROOMS National Galleries of Scotland and Tate. Acquired jointly through The d'Offay Donation with assistance from the National Heritage Memorial Fund and Art Fund, 2008
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accession number:AR00619
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gallery:
Joseph Beuys
Joseph Beuys
German artist Beuys believed that art was integral to everyday life. According to Beuys his own art was shaped by an experience early in his life. As a Luftwaffe pilot during the war, he claimed that he was shot down over the Crimea and was saved by nomadic Tartars. Barely alive, he was wrapped in...