Felt Suit

Date1978

Label TextBeuys' enigmatic work can be perceived as a response to the horrors he witnessed in WWII Germany. One of his favored materials, thick felt, conveys a sense of warmth and protection against the forces of nature, but it also serves to muffle sounds. In this group, we find objects that relate to sound or the negation of sound (noiseless blackboard eraser), which to Beuys were metaphors for political repression.

"The Felt Suit was an attempt to express two principles that were very important for my actions … on the one hand, (it) isolates a person from everybody else. On the other, it is a symbol of the isolation of human beings in our era."

– Joseph Beuys speaking to Keto von Waberer quoted in Eine Innere Mongolei, p. 206)

Felt Suit is an autobiographical work of art, as the suit is modeled on the artist's own clothing. Joseph Beuys considered the material to be an extension of the self, and in his case a life-saving element that nomads used to warm him following an airplane crash during World War II. The suit hanging on a wall is like a hollow body portrait. Beuys used clothing to refer to the body and its physical absence, conjuring up notions of loss and nostalgia.

Object number97.48

ProvenancePurchased from Obelisk Gallery, 1997

Photo CreditPhoto: Susan Cole

Every human being is an artist, a freedom being, called to participate in transforming and reshaping the conditions, thinking and structures that shape and condition our lives.

Joseph Beuys

Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, "Anselm Kiefer and Germanic Tradition", June 4, 1999 - January 2, 2000 Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, "Anselm Kiefer and the Germanic Tradition", June 4, 1999 - January 2, 2000, (6/4/99-1/2/2000)

Credit LineGift of Joan and Roger Sonnabend

DimensionsJacket: 32 x 33 1/2 in. (81.3 x 114.3 cm) Trousers: 45 x 18 in. (85.1 x 45.7 cm)

MediumWool felt