Joseph Beuys

Capri-Batterie light bulb, electrical plug and lemon

„Beuys-Capri batterie is a streamlined metaphor for civilization´s ecological balance. It shows an interpendance between artifice and substance, technological artifacts and organic entities. The terms it provides demonstrate the fusion of culture with nature, culture becomes nature, nature as fuel source. The light bulb doesn´t exhaust itself because it never goes on, but the lemon `batterie´requires periodic replacement when it shrivels up. The symbiosis oft he two elements is false, in a practical sense, and true, in an artistic one. Bought at Christies 26 March 2014

Joseph Beuys (1921-1986) sculpture, Capri-Batterie light bulb, electrical plug and lemon 4.5/8 x 5.5/8 x 3½in. (11.7 x 14.3 x 9cm.) Executed in 1985, this work is from an edition of two hundr