Joseph Beuys was born in Krefeld, Germany in 1921 and spent a lot of his early adult life in the military, trained to be an aircraft radio operator and combat pilot. Unfortunately he was wounded many times, one time during a plane crash when he was rescued by nomadic Tartars who decided to rub him down with fat and and wrap him in felt to warm him. (Because of this a lot of his later pieces involved the usage of fat and felt. The image below makes use of the felt)
After his return from the war Beuys decided not to pursue a career in medicine like he originally planned and enrolled in the Dusseldorf Academy of Art so that he could started sculpture. He also focussed on drawing and made thousands of drawings during the 1950s. In the 1960s the Academy became more and more important for contemporary art and really helpeed Beuys develop as an artist based on the Fluxus movement. He began performances, which he termed "actions". He exhibited his sculptures, objects, drawings and room installations. His calls for reform and reaching out to the public were moving but were also seen as unconventional and they cost him his job as a teacher after he refused to stop insisting that admission to the art school should be open to anyone.
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