Joseph Beuys

Coyote II

1980

© DACS, 2019

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Not on display

Artist
Joseph Beuys 1921–1986
Medium
Photograph, black and white, on canvas with oil paint
Dimensions
Support: 455 x 703 mm
frame: 662 x 909 x 85 mm
Collection
ARTIST ROOMS Tate and 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
AR00694

Online caption

This is one of a pair of images showing Beuys's 1974 'action' 'I Like America and America Likes Me'. The 'action' began as soon as the artist landed in America. He was wrapped in felt at the airport, and driven in an ambulance to René Block's Manhattan gallery. He spent three days in the gallery space with a coyote before being driven straight back to the airport and flown home. The coyote is sacred to Native Americans, and represented an aspect of the country's past that Beuys liked. This image shows items the artist used in the 'action'. The felt blanket and torch represent survival, he used the triangle to make music and lent on the shepherd's crook.

Performance art

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