'Table with Accumulator', Joseph Beuys

Artwork details

Artist

Joseph Beuys (1921‑1986)

Title

Table with Accumulator

Tisch mit Aggregat

Date 1958-85

MediumWood, accumulator, clay and wire

DimensionsOverall display dimensions variable

Collection

Tate / National Galleries of Scotland

Acquisition ARTIST ROOMS Acquired jointly with the National Galleries of Scotland through The d'Offay Donation with assistance from the National Heritage Memorial Fund and the Art Fund 2008

Reference

AR00603

On display at Tate Modern

Theme: Level 2: Poetry and Dream

Room: ARTIST ROOMS: Joseph Beuys (Room 8)

Display caption

In this work, an accumulator – a kind of rechargeable battery in which energy can be stored - is attached by wires to two pieces of clay, as if drawing power from the earth itself. For Beuys, the production and storage of energy was a metaphor for the creative and spiritual energy that he wanted to foster both in the individual viewer and in society as a whole. This was one of the works that Beuys included in the 1982 Zeitgeist exhibition, accompanying the various elements of Lightning with Stag in its Glare.

July 2010