Joseph Beuys - Coyote: I Like America and America Likes Me, 1970s
“Art alone makes life possible. Every man is an artist.” - Joseph Beuys
In May 1974, Joseph Beuys flew to New York City from Germany and was transported to René Block Gallery in an ambulance. He was determined to never actually touch the soil of America during his stay. At the gallery, Beuys entered a specific room–sparse save for a live coyote, a straw bed, flashlight, water dish, felt blankets, and the Wall Street Journal (delivered daily by a gallery attendant). He spent three consecutive days, eight hours a day here with the coyote. His collaborator, Caroline Tisdall, documented the performance in black and white photographs and video.
To Beuys, the coyote represented America’s untamed spirit–America before it was colonized by Europeans. He believed the only way to heal the divide between natives and white Americans, nature and men, spiritualism and capitalism is to face the differences head on and to look the trauma in the eye. American society could only begin to heal with this kind of radical and direct communication. So he did what he did with the coyote–who at first was quite violent toward him, but as the three days passed, began to coexist with Beuys–and then left American whence he came. He wrapped himself in his felt blanket and went to the airport in the ambulance, never touching American soil.
The simplicity of his piece remains relevant, its power lying in the innate strength of communication. Beuys let the coyote know he wanted to coexist, meant the animal no harm, and the animal learned to trust the human and let its guard down. In a time in America in which we are still divided, still living opposing ideals infiltrating our lives, the concept of direct communication to achieve trust seen with Beuys piece is a beautiful idea. Artists today still take inspiration from him, with the band The 1975 releasing a song called “I like America & America Likes Me” (2018) that uses Beuys’ ideas in regards to gun violence in the United States in the 21st century.
In May 1974, Joseph Beuys flew to New York City from Germany and was transported to René Block Gallery in an ambulance. He was determined to never actually touch the soil of America during his stay. At the gallery, Beuys entered a specific room–sparse save for a live coyote, a straw bed, flashlight, water dish, felt blankets, and the Wall Street Journal (delivered daily by a gallery attendant). He spent three consecutive days, eight hours a day here with the coyote. His collaborator, Caroline Tisdall, documented the performance in black and white photographs and video.
To Beuys, the coyote represented America’s untamed spirit–America before it was colonized by Europeans. He believed the only way to heal the divide between natives and white Americans, nature and men, spiritualism and capitalism is to face the differences head on and to look the trauma in the eye. American society could only begin to heal with this kind of radical and direct communication. So he did what he did with the coyote–who at first was quite violent toward him, but as the three days passed, began to coexist with Beuys–and then left American whence he came. He wrapped himself in his felt blanket and went to the airport in the ambulance, never touching American soil.
The simplicity of his piece remains relevant, its power lying in the innate strength of communication. Beuys let the coyote know he wanted to coexist, meant the animal no harm, and the animal learned to trust the human and let its guard down. In a time in America in which we are still divided, still living opposing ideals infiltrating our lives, the concept of direct communication to achieve trust seen with Beuys piece is a beautiful idea. Artists today still take inspiration from him, with the band The 1975 releasing a song called “I like America & America Likes Me” (2018) that uses Beuys’ ideas in regards to gun violence in the United States in the 21st century.
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