The Essential Joseph Beuys locates the artist's oeuvre as he saw it: part of a larger, philosophically based practice emphasizing direct democracy, free access to education, and the restructuring of society to meet ecological requirements. A total of 152 works from Beuys's many fields of activity--drawings and watercolors, prints and multiples, sculptures and objects, spaces and happenings--arranged in chronological order demonstrate the artist's formal versatility, creative richness, and conceptual depth. The peculiar poetry of the materials Beuys used--felt, grease, honey, wax,...