"Filzanzug" (Felt Suit), 1970

felt sewn as a suit

170 x 100 cm (66 7/8 x 39 3/8 in.)

Edition René Block, Berlin - without the edition tag edition of 100 + 10 h.c.

About the work

The felt suit is one of Beuys' multiples. He considered the multiples the best medium for spreding his ideas, thus expanding the concept radically. The concentration on one material only corresponds with his interest in the essential. Beuys' typical reference to the warming property of the material felt is again presented here. In his metaphoric, Beuys goes beyond the status of purely physical warmth, he rather means an emotional or spiritual warmth, because to him warmth as an energy source comprises an evolutionary principle. Beuys wore the suit during his perforamce "Isolation unit", levelled at the atrocities of the war in Vietnam and the inhumane coldness of the bombardments. His credo was: cold can be switched off by warmth, meaning spiritual and emotional warmth.