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Artist or Maker: Joseph Beuys (1921-1986)
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Provenance: Acquired directly from the artist by the present owner in 1972.
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Exhibited: Dusseldorf, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Joseph Beuys Natur Materie Form, November 1991-February 1992, no. 85 (illustrated in colour, unpaged).
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Literature: E. Beuys, W. Beuys and J. Beuys, Joseph Beuys, Block Beuys, Munich 1990 (another from the edition illustrated in colour, p. 253).
J. Schellmann, Joseph Beuys, The Multiples, Italy 1997, no. 65 (another from the edition illustrated in colour, p. 99).
G. Celant, Beuys, Tracce in Italia, Naples 1978, no. 54 (another from the edition illustrated, p. 57).
Joseph Beuys, exh. cat., Kunsthaus Zurich, November 1993-February 1994, no. 33 (another from the edition illustrated, p. 89).
H. Bastian, Joseph Beuys, Skulpturen und Objekte, Berlin 1988, no. 65 (another from the edition illustrated in colour, p. 205).
Joseph Beuys, exh. cat., Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, June 1993-October 1994 (another from the edition illustrated, p. 177).
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Notes: THE PROPERTY OF A PRIVATE EUROPEAN COLLECTOR
A symbolic instrument of healing, regeneration and support Rückenstütze eines feingliederigen Menschen (Hasentypus) aus dem 20 Jahrhundert p. Chr (Back-support for a fine-limbed person (Hare Type) of the 20th Century) is an iron corset made by Joseph Beuys in 1972. It is one of the many objects in Beuys' art that address the essentially sick nature of 20th Century man and his need to be healed by immersing himself in a primordial and elemental understanding of Nature.
This iron corset, looking like a three dimensional manifestation of many of the hare/women figures that appear in Beuys' 'Drawings to Leonardo's Madrid Codex', is, like them, a mystical and shamanic being, part passive object of support, part active force for regeneration. Made from a plaster cast taken from the body of the daughter of a friend of his and later cast in iron, the material of this body corset invokes both the healing properties of plaster and the regenerative energising properties of iron. Beuys was attracted to iron because of its ability to slowly accumulate energy. By casting this corset in iron this passive object of support is also transformed into a potent image of power.
A similar paradox exists in the form that the corset takes. It is based on both a medicinal body cast used in the healing of damaged backs and on the birthing corsets used by some Breton and Native American women who give birth from a standing position. In this way this support invokes a similar sense of both healing and regeneration as that symbolised for Beuys by the hare - the shamanic animal with which he chose to most closely associate himself. 'The hare' Beuys once said, 'is...the symbol of the alchemical transformation and chemical transplantation of substances: the mobility of blood, the relation between the hare and menstruational blood, birth and incarnation: the upper half for the soul, the lower half for fertility...I am the hare'(Joseph Beuys: The Secret Block exh.cat. Basel,1979 p. 38) Similarly, this 'Back-Support' seems both a shamanic apparatus of healing and a wounded animal.
When asked whether any personal catastophes or traumas had influenced the making of this work or other important works referential to wounded man and healing such as his 'Sledge' or the installation Show your Wound, Beuys replied that 'one constantly has to struggle against...traumatic conditions, and that's true of every individual, not just me. That is the essence of human nature. As Nietzsche said; Man is an ill being. That's a definition of humanity. The human being is ill and can be ill. Because of his freedom the human being always trespasses into areas that threaten him or her. Yes, personal experiences have found expression in these objects - it would undoubtedly be a shame if such things had not found their way into work. How could it be different? Art expresses the realm of experience and goes far beyond the comprehensibility of logical content. For art depends only on experience and experiences should of course relate to the objective keys of understanding on a universal level. But when you approach and tackle this objective universal content mistakes occur during the struggle, not just in my case but quite generally. These have to then be redirected and grasped again. To this extent it is a permanent struggle and I believe that something of this struggle situation is contained in the objects.' (Interview with Joseph Beuys, June 1977, Jörg Schellmann Joseph Beuys: Multiples Munich, 1985, p. 20)
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