Felt Suit

Currently not on view

Felt Suit

1970

Joseph Beuys (German, 1921–1986)

A World War II pilot who was shot down in Russia, Joseph Beuys described his mythical rescue by a small community of nomadic Tatars as the defining moment in his life as an artist, claiming that the nomads kept him alive and warm by wrapping him in felt and rubbing fat into his skin. For Beuys, one of the most important artists of the second half of the twentieth century, felt and fat came to signify survival as well as physical and spiritual nourishment, and these materials pervade his work. In Felt Suit, he evokes the absent figure of the artist as a healer, capable of caring for and transforming his audience and society.

Currently not on view

Object Details

Title:

Felt Suit

Date:

1970

Artist:

Joseph Beuys (German, 1921–1986)

Medium:

Felt

Dimensions:

With hanger: 6 feet 3 1/2 inches × 27 1/2 inches × 6 1/2 inches (191.8 × 69.9 × 16.5 cm)

Classification:

Sculpture

Credit Line:

Gift of the Friends of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1971

Accession Number:

1971-41-9a,b

Geography:

Made in Europe

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Currently not on view