Untitled III
Joseph Beuys
German, 1921–1986
1948-81
A glass-and-wood display case by Joseph Beuys containing an arranged constellation of everyday objects—fat and wax, a painted cardboard disc, a cassette recorder, scraps of fabric, metal fragments and wood—that the artist assembled as a ritualized inventory of personal and social symbols.
At first glance it reads like a sparse stage set: a shallow white box on thin black legs, its clean interior punctuated by a vivid yellow disc and a scatter of small, tactile objects whose greasy, rough, and worn surfaces feel intimate against the clinical vitrine.
Part sculpture, part archive, it exemplifies Beuys’s expansion of artistic materials and rituals—transforming mundane detritus into symbolic elements that argued for art’s role in healing, memory, and public life.
Medium
Glass, wood, and metal display case containing (left to right):
Untitled, 1974: stamped board, wooden blocks with pencil and ink, wooden boxes with honeycomb, and white tin can with asphalt; Untitled, c. 1964: bacon rind, fabric, and rubber band; Sheep (Schaf), 1948: brass; Disc (Scheibe), 1976: cardboard and oil paint; Untitled, 1972-81: fat, wax, and copper doorstop, in five parts; Untitled, 1958-59: plastic, fat, pencil, and tuning fork; Kings Head (Königskopf), 1962: zinc plate and stone; Tram (Strassenbahn), c. 1956-57: sticky foil, linen, oil paint, and pencil in a shoe box; Concert Mönchengladbach (Konzert Mönchengladbach), 1970: cassette player in leather case
Dimensions
79 x 91 1/2 x 26 1/2" (200.7 x 232.4 x 67.3 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of Maja Oeri and Hans Bodenmann
Accession
1150.2007.c
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
