Editing Joseph Beuys (section)

===''I Like America and America Likes Me'' (performance, 1974)===
{{main|I Like America and America Likes Me}}
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Art historian {{ill|Uwe Schneede|de}} considers this performance pivotal for the reception of German [[avant-garde]] art in the United States since it paved the way for recognition of not only Beuys's own work but also that of contemporaries such as [[Georg Baselitz]], [[Anselm Kiefer|Kiefer]], [[Markus Lüpertz|Lüpertz]], and many others in the 1980s.<ref name="Schneede">Schneede, Uwe M. (1998) ''Joseph Beuys: Die Aktionen''. Gerd Hatje. p. 330. {{ISBN|3-7757-0450-7}}</ref> In May 1974, Beuys flew to New York and was taken by ambulance to the site of the performance, a room in the René Block Gallery at 409 West Broadway.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://johanhedback.com/beuys.html|title=American Beuys|publisher=Johan Hedback|access-date=23 September 2014|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140316063227/http://johanhedback.com/beuys.html|archive-date=16 March 2014}}</ref> Beuys lay on the ambulance stretcher swathed in felt. He shared this room with a [[coyote]] for eight hours over three days. At times he stood, wrapped in a thick, grey blanket of felt, leaning on a large shepherd's staff. At times he lay on the straw, at times he watched the coyote as the coyote watched him and cautiously circled the man or shredded the blanket to pieces, and at times he engaged in symbolic gestures, such as striking a large triangle or tossing his leather gloves to the animal; the performance continuously shifted between elements that were required by the realities of the situation and elements that had a purely symbolic character. At the end of the three days, Beuys hugged the coyote that had grown quite tolerant of him and was taken to the airport. Again he rode in a veiled ambulance, leaving America without having set foot on its ground. As Beuys later explained: 'I wanted to isolate myself, insulate myself, see nothing of America other than the coyote.'<ref name="Schneede" />

In 2013, Dale Eisinger of [[Complex (magazine)|''Complex'']] ranked ''I Like America and America Likes Me'' the second greatest work of performance art ever, after ''Pandrogeny'' by [[Genesis P-Orridge]].<ref>{{Cite web|last=Eisinger|first=Dale|date=9 April 2013|title=The 25 Best Performance Art Pieces of All Time|url=https://www.complex.com/style/2013/04/the-25-best-performance-art-pieces-of-all-time/|access-date=28 February 2021|website=Complex|language=en}}</ref>