Artist field note

Joseph Beuys

Myth, politics and pedagogy as sculpture.

01 / 05

How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare

1965

With honey and gold leaf on his head, Beuys whispers to a dead hare. Explanation becomes ritual rather than lecture.

The five in one idea

Beuys expanded sculpture until teaching, ecology, politics and collective action could all count as artistic material.