Joseph Beuys

- To be a teacher (Beuys was art teaching on the Düsseldorf Art Academy, fh) is my greatest work of art. The rest is the waste product, a demonstration. If you want to express yourself you must present something tangible. But after a while this has only the function of a historic document. Objects aren’t very important any more. I want to get to the origin of matter, to the thought behind it.
* statement from an: interview, Willoughby Sharp, 1969; as quoted in “Energy Plan for the Western man – Joseph Beuys in America –”, Four Walls Eight Windows, New York, 1993, p. 85