About this artwork
In this collage, the artist has combined a leaf with lime, putting a mineral element together with an object from the natural world. Beuys occasionally used leaves and pressed flowers in his early works of the 1940s and 1950s, and drawings of natural forms were included in his first exhibitions after the Second World War. This reflects an interest in the natural sciences which was lifelong. In later years, Beuys referred to the 1950s as a period of preparation, which he spent reading and making hundreds of drawings which influenced his later sculpture and 'actions'.
Updated before 2020
see media-
artist:Joseph Beuys (1921 - 1986) German
-
title:Untitled
-
date created:1955
-
materials:Leaf and lime on cardboard
-
measurements:30.20 x 24.40 cm
-
object type:
-
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
-
accession number:AR00696
-
gallery:
-
subject:
-
artwork photographed by:Antonia Reeve
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...