The purpose of this research is to examine the work and life of German artist Joseph Beuys, with a view toward showing the ecological aspects of his art. The plan of the research will be to set forth in general terms the prevailing tenor of his art which has the effect of positioning its content as a valid expression of commentary on the physical environment, and then to discuss ways in which specific works illustrate the artist's concern about the contemporary collective habitat.
The work of Joseph Beuys cannot be understood without reference to certain events of his life. Similarly, Beuys's life appears to have been informed by specific incidents that mark it as peculiarly modern in character. A number of critics have noted the way in which Beuys incorporates contemporary sensibility with the kind of experimentation and openness of technique and perception that are consistent with postmodern attitudes and experience. The most cursory look at Beuys's personal background does much to explain how this connection between art and life has been made. To begin with, Beuys is wholly a product of the twentieth century. Born in 1921 in Kleve (also spelled Cleves), Germany, Beuys appears to have been uniquely positioned to emerge as a social commentator. For one thing, as Marks observes, the town of Kleve is located on the brink of cultural tension about ten miles from the border with Holland.1 A German youth particularly one who came of age at the time that Adolf Hitler came to the peak of his power must inevitably have been caught up in the frenzy of excitement that was to culminate in the upheaval of Europe in World War II. Yet the process of Beuys's life in this period, which culminated on a personal level with his entry into service as an airman and then pilot in the Luftwaffe, may be seen as a peculiar locus of sociocultural tension. To the degree this is so, the facts that such tension found expression on an artistic level and tha...