Joseph BEUYS - Felt dress (1970)

 

Felt dress

1970
Sewn felt (170x100 cm)
Tate Modern, London

*******

It is not so much the object itself that is interesting but the sensations it evokes even without touching it: human warmth and the sense of security and protection that are suggested by the felt itself.

Beuys joined the Fluxus for a certain period of his life, an artistic movement that has dedicated itself to organizing events (called "happenings" by those who do not speak Italian well) with an anarchist background. Very little remains of a performance or happening, to tell the truth only the objects used and the memories of those who participated remain. This dress is a copy of the one used by Beuys himself during a demonstration against the war in Vietnam.

For the German artist, Art could convey political and social changes, as well as having a spiritual dimension and he believed that the use of common materials could have a therapeutic power (his favorites were felt and animal fat). . Beuys considered the artist as a sort of shaman, able to channel the energy present in objects into new forms and meanings.

Joseph Beuys became a real cult object in his hometown, Germany, where many of his works and objects were copied, such as the felt dress.

Comparing artists: Broodthaers, Duchamp, Oldenburg, Schwitters