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polity united states postwarconcept:era contemporary

I Like America and America Likes Me

Performance artwork (1974) by Joseph Beuys. Beuys flew to New York wrapped in felt, was transported by ambulance directly to the René Block Gallery, and spent three days in the gallery with a live coyote. The performance enacted a dialogue between European/German trauma and native American spiritual traditions — using the coyote as a symbol of pre-colonial America.

Scholarly Significance

Beuys's I Like America and America Likes Me (1974) is among the most celebrated performance works of the 20th century — a three-day cohabitation with a live coyote in a New York gallery, enacting a mediation between Europe and Native America.

Notes

  • ·Beuys arrived in New York at JFK Airport wrapped in felt, was transported by ambulance directly to the gallery — refusing to touch American soil until he had completed the ritual.
  • ·For three days, Beuys and a live wild coyote cohabited in the gallery, separated initially by felt wrapping, then gradually approaching each other.
  • ·The Wall Street Journal was delivered daily and became part of the performance materials.
  • ·At the end, Beuys embraced the coyote, was wrapped in felt again, driven to JFK, and returned to Germany — never having seen any other part of America.
  • ·The performance was a mediation: between pre-Columbian America (the coyote as sacred animal in Navajo tradition) and modern America (Wall Street Journal); between Germany and the US; between war and reconciliation.
  • ·Beuys declined to have the work documented by professional film crews — the primary photographic documentation is by Caroline Tisdall.
  • ·The title references a song from 'Indian Summer' by the rock band, and was a sardonic commentary on American self-promotion.
  • ·Now considered among the ten most important performances in art history.