For Beuys, the medium of drawing was a field of experimentation for ideas - he defined all kinds of notes, be they profound explanations of political themes or random scribbles on paper, as drawings. To him they were visual aids when he was teaching, and an important means of expression. He called them a "reservoir" for ideas and as a "battery", that provided him with energy. In his drawings, a surprising tenderness and sensibility is revealed.
In the present drawing the artist has placed three bell-shaped objects, possibly lamps, in a row on three high square pedestals. Above them hovers a rectangular force field. On the reverse of the force field Beuys wrote “Lucera” on the paper.
As a young soldier, Beuys was stationed in Foggia, Apulia, for several months in 1943. The German Luftwaffe took off from the nearby military airport Amendola to fly to Croatia and to the Crimea, where Beuys was later shot down.
Beuys loved Italy and with his open personality soon found friends and acquaintances among the locals. He wrote to his parents „Italy is lovely“. It was there that he decided to become an artist. He met likeminded people and an atmosphere open for artists. In 1974 he created a book with 75 screenprints, which he titled „The People in Foggia are Terrific“. He remembered this time he spent in Italy all his life. Beuys did not have more exhibitions in any country outside of Germany than in Italy.
Lucera is a small town, rich in history, near Foggia. It was first mentioned 326 BC. as an ally of the Romans in the second Samnite war, destroyed by the Byzantines in 633, and rebuilt in the 13th century by Emperor Frederic II, whose fort is still standing today. It might be the force field Beuys was thinking of, when he inscribed “Lucera” on the reverse of the present work.
