Mondrian Boots, 1995
Sylvie Fleury
Untitled (We don't need another hero), 1987
Barbara Kruger
The Klan KlansmanAndres Serrano
Finis Coronat Opus, 1995
oil on canvas
Charles Bell
Study for this Sovereign Life, 1985
oil and sand
Jim Dine
My Bed, 1996
Tracey Emin
I Like America and America Likes Me, 1974
performance
Joseph BeuysBeuys’s most famous Action took place in May 1974, when he spent three days in a room with a coyote. After flying into New York, he was swathed in felt and loaded into an ambulance, then driven to the gallery where the Action took place, without having once touched American soil. As Beuys later explained: ‘I wanted to isolate myself, insulate myself, see nothing of America other than the coyote.’ The title of the work is filled with irony. Beuys opposed American military actions in Vietnam, and his work as an artist was a challenge to the hegemony of American art. Beuys’s felt blankets, walking stick and gloves became sculptural props throughout the Action. In addition, fifty new copies of the Wall Street Journal were introduced each day, which the coyote acknowledged by urinating on them. Beuys regularly performed the same series of actions with his eyes continuously fixed on the coyote. At other times he would rest or gather the felt around him to suggest the figure of a shepherd with his crook. The coyote’s behaviour shifted throughout the three days, becoming cautious, detached, aggressive and sometimes companionable. At the end of the Action, Beuys was again wrapped in felt and returned to the airport.
The Pack, 2002
resin and urethan
Michael Joo