Joseph Beuys: Coyote

Coyote. I Like America and America Likes Me took place in Ren Block's New York gallery in May 1974: in a room transformed into a cage Joseph Beuys (1921-1986) spent seven days and nights with a wild coyote. The silent dialogue emerg ing from a gesturous interplay between man and animal allegorically revealed the buried possibilities of a dialogue between man and man. Since the early 60s Joseph Beuys staged "actions," ritualistic performances meant to produce the unity of art and life, which Beuys repeatedly proclaimed and sought. Besides his drawings, sculptures, and objects, these actions are the most mysterious, most elusive part of his work. This volume, first published in 1976, is the hitherto only attempt to document a Beuys action in a book. Caroline Tisdall's photographs and her descriptive interpretative essay make Beuys' concepts and his staged symbols visible and comprehensible.