Hirsch un Hut, 1980

Widely recognised as one of the most influential artists of the late 20th century, Joseph Beuys was a multi-faceted artist whose works were created through many different forms; traditional mediums such as painting and sculpture, as well as performance art and an involvement in social and political activities. Beuys, alongside Andy Warhol and Kaii Higashiyama, created the Global-Art-Fusion project in 1985; this was a fax-art project in which drawings of all three artists were distributed around the world within the space of 32 minutes – the fax went through Dusseldorf, New York, Tokyo and was finally received at Vienna's Palais-Liechtenstein Museum of Modern Art – the fax was taken to be a sign of peace during the Cold War. A lot of Beuys’ installations and performance art employed the use of unorthodox materials and adopted a ritualistic approach, often met with controversy; How to Explain Pictures To a Dead Hare is one of his most recognised performances – Beuys walked around the gallery for two hours while explaining the concept of the surrounding art to the dead hare that he carried with him.