1. JOSEPH BEUYS
By, Chloe, Celdice, Hannah Lehane, Amy

3. I Like America And America Likes Me - 1974
Beuys’ I Like America And America Likes Me is a performance art piece
There is two main elements in his piece – himself and a coyote, and it take place in a gallery in New York.
The two main aspects of the film focus on Bueys and the coyote, neither is in a dominant position.

4. COMPOSITIONAL ASPECTS
Space can be considered an important part of Beuys’ performance, as it takes place in one single room over two days, and the artist does not leave the room.
The film becomes an endurance piece, as the coyote becomes more wild and unpredictable.
Over time, copies of the Wall Street Journal are introduced to the room, acknowledged by the coyote urinating on them. The piece is a response to Bueys’ opposition to American involvement in the Vietnam War.

5. The title is perhaps mocking Beuys’ feelings towards US military’s involvement in Vietnam, and responding to American society’s movement towards fear and rejection of conflict.
His preoccupation with fur stems from his time spent as a fighter pilot during the war, in which his plane crashed on the Crimean Front and he was wrapped in felt for protection. This underpins his idea of artist as superior- the coyote is also seen as a powerful being to Native Americans.
In the performance he is carried to the gallery wrapped in felt in an ambulance to prevent him touching American soil.

6. Reasons for Beuy’s choices
Beuy’s “became dissatisfied with a long tradition of heroic or object orientated painting and sculpture (much recently typified by abstract Expressionism”.
Bueys’ work is described as a blend of ‘art, politics, personal charisma, paradox and Utopian Preposition’.

7. Artist’s Intentions
The intention for this performance was for him to isolate himself from America, and see nothing but the coyote.
During the late twentieth Century he demonstrated how art might originate in personal experience, and addressed universal problems and topical issues.

8. What is the piece trying to tell us?
Highlights a relationship with nature.
Buey’s tries to confront the idea of dominant and submissive behaviour.
Metaphor for capitalism (leader of the pack, the public being submissive)
The feeling this film evokes are animalistic and primal, show casing the natural emotion of man and animal living in harmony.

9. Citation
cref/ /acref e-268
like-america-and-america-likes-me