Lot Essay
Beuys repeatedly used the Wurfkreuz, which he first conceived in 1949, uniting them with other objects such as a knee cap and scull in 1952 now in the Hessisches Landesmuseum in Darmstadt, Germany. The Wurfkreuz with stopwatch also exists in combination with the Pflockkreuz executed 1953/61.
'The cross appears frequently in Beuys' work, with many different meanings. Sometimes it is a global symbol of the earth, as in the Queen bees. When used as a Christian symbol it represents those aspects of non-institutionalized Christianity which Beuys believes to have had a powerful effect on western thinking, namely the emphasis on individual self determination rather than hierarchic structure, and the spirit of the enquiry which he interprets as the basis of modern scientific thought. Sometimes elements which at first glance appear to be a part of Christian iconography, like the bronze crosses of 1949, used in the action Eurasia in 1965...turn out to be highly pagan in intent...' C.Tisdall, Joseph Beuys, New York, 1979, p.108
'The cross appears frequently in Beuys' work, with many different meanings. Sometimes it is a global symbol of the earth, as in the Queen bees. When used as a Christian symbol it represents those aspects of non-institutionalized Christianity which Beuys believes to have had a powerful effect on western thinking, namely the emphasis on individual self determination rather than hierarchic structure, and the spirit of the enquiry which he interprets as the basis of modern scientific thought. Sometimes elements which at first glance appear to be a part of Christian iconography, like the bronze crosses of 1949, used in the action Eurasia in 1965...turn out to be highly pagan in intent...' C.Tisdall, Joseph Beuys, New York, 1979, p.108