Untitled

Joseph Beuys' drawing of two sets of bull horns shows the artist's interest in the bodily systems of animals. They seem to hover above a black pool that may suggest primordial ooze. The speckled substance emitted by the horns shows that they release the "deep mystery of the bloodstream flowing from the interior and continuing to circulate out of the head." By the 1950s, Beuys saw drawing as the most immediate way of rendering nature's systems and bridging the earthly and spiritual realms. Drawing, he believed, activated his psyche and helped him visualize such connections. Twenty years later, Beuys cut and reaffixed the top part of this drawing and added a circular stamp showing the word "Haupstrom," or principal current, arching over two types of crosses and directional arrows. The Haupstrom stamp symbolizes regeneration, the circulation of life, and the flow of universal and personal energies. Beuys was one of the most significant and controversial European artists in the second half of the 20th century. Many of his provocative ideas first took place in the form of his drawings, producing more than 10,000 over his lifetime.