Joseph Beuys

Studio of the artist

Collection Alfred Greisinger, Augsburg (acquired directly from the artist)

Private Collection, Munich (acquired from the above circa 1984)

Acquired in 2024 by the present owner

Jörg Schellmann, Joseph Beuys. Die Multiples, Munich 1992, no. 12, pp. 52–53, illustrated

Munich, A11 Artforum, Joseph Beuys – a private collection, February - April 1990, no. 11, p. 115, illustrated

• Schlitten (Sled) is a recurring motif in Beuys’s work, symbolizing mobility and rescue
• The sled, combined with felt, fat, and survival essentials, embodies Beuys’s core themes of healing, warmth, and nourishment
• As a portable multiple, Schlitten exemplifies Beuys’s idea of sculpture as a social and symbolic tool
• Held in major museum collections, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York

Joseph Beuys was a pivotal figure in post-war art, whose practice blurred the boundaries between sculpture, performance and political activism. A founding member of Fluxus and a professor at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, Beuys developed a complex symbolic vocabulary. His use of unconventional materials such as felt and fat became central to his thinking around healing, transformation and energy.

“The most direct type of movement over the earth is the gliding of the iron runners of sledges (...).”

(Caroline Tisdall, Joseph Beuys, London 1979, p. 190)

Schlitten (Sled) encapsulates many of Beuys’s core ideas. The sled, one of the oldest forms of human transport, appears repeatedly in his work - both as a symbol of primal mobility and, more significantly, as a metaphor for rescue. This theme stems from the artist’s often-repeated account of being rescued by Tatar nomads after a wartime plane crash, who, according to Beuys, wrapped him in felt and fat and transported him on a sled. Like the larger installation Das Rudel (1969), Schlitten is equipped with a felt blanket, flashlight, and a lump of fat - essentials Beuys associated with survival: warmth, orientation, and nourishment.

This work remains one of Beuys’s most recognisable multiples, showcasing the artist’s radical concept of sculpture into a portable, symbolic form. Editions are held in numerous museum collections, and it stands as a key expression of Beuys’s idea of art as social sculpture.