Lot 611 R

2 works: woodcut and watercolour on laid paper and woodcut on laid paper each 45.8 x 61.8 cm both on card support 104.5 x 72.5 cm, framed under glass. The reverse of bottom sheet signed, titled and inscribed '"22. Dez. 1980 Seychelles Planting a Coco-nut'". - Traces of studio.

Provenance: Heiner Bastian Collection, Berlin; Private Collection, Germany

Exhibition: Hovikodden 1985/1986 (Henie-Onstad Kunstsenter), Joseph Beuys, Tegninger

Lausanne 1983/1984 (Musée Cantonal des Beaux-Arts), Winterthur 1984 (Kunstmuseum Winterthur), Calais (Musée des Beaux-Arts), St.-Etienne (Musée d'Art et d'Industrie), Linz (Neue Galerie), Marseille 1985 (Musée Cantini), Oslo (Sonja Henies og Niels Onstads Stiftelser), Joseph Beuys, Zeichnungen, Dessins, exhib.cat.no.71 (label verso)

“Planting a Coconut” was created by Beuys as part of a happening on the Seychelles on 24 December 1980: Joseph Beuys planted two trees - one fast-growing coconut tree and a slow-growing Coco de Mer, the mythical national symbol of the archipelago. For Beuys this plant symbolised human relationships and also the relationship between man and nature. At the same time, it became a very personal symbol of the artist himself - as explained by Lucrezia de Domizio Durini in her “Diary of the Seychelles”: The Coco de Mer normally takes several years to germinate, and just a few days after Beuys' death in 1986 a tender shoot appeared. (See Lucrezia de Domizio Durini, Diary of the Seychelles, in: Zürcher Kunstgesellschaft (ed.), Beuys Voice, exhibition catalogue, Kunsthaus Zürich 2011, p. 681). Lucrezia de Domizio Durini further explains that the coconut campaign crystallises a central idea in the artist's oeuvre: “These differences in space and time and also in growth and development reflect an idea that pervades Beuys's entire project and the totality of the thought behind it, a project of cultural differences and of collaborative solidarity between people from different backgrounds, from different ethnic groups and with different jobs. Both are one, and the one is contained within the other. This tropical island project is very clearly an important part of Beuys's personal plan. Together with the entire series of his works created on the Seychelles, it forms the backbone of his campaign 'Difesa della Natura'. […] Beuys's woodcuts 'Tropical Night' and 'Planting a Coconut' are items which he carved with his favourite pocket knife, using oil and the soot of a burned coconut. […] They are documents of a life, which he lived in all sincerity. This sincerity restores the idea of man and nature as elements of reversible creativity, making it credible again.” (ibid.)