Ensemble: Natuur / Nature / Nature / Natur
From a very early age, Joseph Beuys was fascinated by nature, obsessively busy cataloguing the fauna and flora in his living environment. At the same time, he delved deep into mythology and folklore, and so we might understand that Beuys’ method for investigating nature as combining rational thinking with cultural and mystical projection. He associated nature with complex psychological processes and the desire for a higher consciousness, and thus wanted to fuse the natural and the cultural world. As well as the recurring motif of animals such as hares and bees in his work, Beuys also depicted the landscape such as mountainous regions as a way to represent borderlessness and freedom. The protection and respect for nature was also central to his work for the Die Grünen (the Greens) in Germany.
Works

Berg in Slowenien, 1951-1954
Joseph Beuys
Drawing, pencil on handmade paper, edges regularly torn, 31.6 x 31.9 cm / 50 x 53 cm

Verlassener Druidentempel, 1962
Joseph Beuys
Object, oil on plywood, 64.2 x 93.5 cm

Evervess II, 1968
Joseph Beuys
Multiple, wooden box, glass bottles, 27 x 16.5 x 9.5 cm

Rückenstütze eines feingliederigen Menschen (Hasentypus) aus dem 20. Jh. p. Chr., 1972
Joseph Beuys
Multiple, iron, 15 x 96 x 43 cm

Rose für Direkte Demokratie, 1973
Joseph Beuys
Multiple, graduated glass cylinder, with inscription, 33.5 x ø 5 cm