Kirsche. 1961.
Collage. Prunus Avium on wove paper (with perforation lines).
Signed, dated and titled on the reverse. 29.3 x 20.6 cm (11.5 x 8.1 in), size of sheet. [EH].

• Plants and nature occupy a key position in Joseph Beuys' creation.
• Beuys had a fascination for botanic works from his early childhood on.
• Beuys reinterprets the artistic perception of natural processes.

PROVENANCE: Private collection Berlin (acquired from the artist).

EXHIBITION: Joseph Beuys: Dibujos Drawings, Fundacion Caja de Pensiones, Madrid, October 23 - December 1, 1985, cat. no. 27 (with illu)., Museo Civico di Gibellina, January 15 - February 16, 1986.
Joseph Beuys: Pirustuksia Zeichnungen, Städtisches Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach, February 23 - April 20, 1986, Sara Hilénin Taidemuseo, Tampere, September/November 1986.
Joseph Beuys: Wo ist Element 3?, Ketterer Kunst, Berlin, March 26 – May 22, 2021.

The sheet belongs to the series of botanical studies that started with the first four plant drawings in 1945, for example in “The secret block for a secret person in Ireland”. Even during his childhood and school days Beuys noticed a strong interest in the world of plants. In his memoirs he mentioned that he rescued Carl von Linné's "Systema Vegetabilium secundum classes ordines gebera species cum characteribus et differentiis" (Göttingen 1797) from a pile of books destined for destruction in the courtyard of his grammar school. This splendid work serve as basis for his explorations in botany, about which amazing things are reported, for example that Beuys created herbaria in his childhood and that he knew many plants by their Latin names. His interest in plants and animals has characterized his work from the beginning on and, in terms of the philosophy of art, led to the formation of a natural space in which spirit, matter, plants, animals and humans are united and permeate and depend on each other. His ecological commitment, which would find spectacular expression with the socio-ecological sculpture “7000 Eichen” at documenta 7 in Kassel in 1982, is based on this early interest. [Eugen Blume]

In good condition. All in all minimally discolored.