An Artist, a Coyote, and a Cage
An Artist, a Coyote, and a Cage: Joseph Beuys in New York 1974
Photographs by Stephen Aiken and a forward by the editor Brett Sokol.
Letter16 Press is thrilled to announce the upcoming May release of its newest hardcover book, a collection of photos by Stephen Aiken: An Artist, a Coyote, and a Cage: Joseph Beuys in New York 1974.
May 2024 marks the 50th anniversary of Joseph Beuys’ infamous piece of performance art staged in New York City: “I Like America and America Likes Me.” The premise—a man and a wild coyote locked together inside a room—helped build a cult following for Beuys that has made him alternately revered and reviled throughout the contemporary art world. Stephen Aiken’s photographs of this May 1974 “action” by Beuys—recently unearthed and previously unpublished—offer a fresh look at this seminal art happening. These striking images are supplemented with a set of previously unseen color photos taken by Aiken of Beuys at Greenwich Village’s New School in January 1974: verbally sparring onstage with fellow artist Hannah Wilke and jousting with a raucous audience that threatened to turn his lecture into a brawl.
84 page hardcover, 10.25″ H x 11.25″ W, Shipping May 2024
Click here for more info, more photos, and to purchase a book with a 20% pre-sale discount.
“Is Beuys simply ‘a man in a room with a coyote’ or is that just the foot-wide and mile-deep entry point for an exploration of everything from Native American genocide to the modern-day destruction of the natural environment—an exploration which could have ended, at any moment, with a bloody mauling by a coyote? Regardless, whether Beuys is pulling his felt blanket taut around him or jauntily waving to Aiken’s camera lens, it’s impossible to look away.”
Brett Sokol, from the foreword to An Artist, a Coyote, and a Cage
The Reviews are In
Forbes
Matthey Carey Salyer explored the book in his review of June 29th, 2024 describes Joseph Beuys performance that was called I like America and America Likes Me (also known as Coyote).
Through July, Provincetown’s Schoolhouse Gallery will be exhibiting a sequence of photographs taken by conceptual artist, Stephen Aiken, during Beuys’s three-day performance. Aiken’s sequence ‘agitates,’ straddling lines between the production and observation of artistic ‘action.’ In documenting Beuys’s famous performance, Aiken reframes the scope of I Like America’s questions.
Matthew Carey Salyer – Forbes
The Arts Fuse – Boston’s Premier Online Arts Magazine
Charles Giuliano writes “Few if any are aware that, 50 years ago, for three days in Manhattan, the German artist Joseph Beuys (1921-1986) created one of the art world’s legendary “actions” (performance art pieces).” in his 27 May 2024 review. Giuliano relates the book to the story of action and says this:
“Then — and now — the art world doesn’t know what to make of his work, particularly in this highly theatrical vein. We should be grateful for An Artist, A Coyote, and a Cage, which documents an important moment of aesthetic/political dissent. How fortunate we are that Aiken went home and got his camera.
Charles Giuliano – The Arts Fuse
Read the full review here at The Arts Fuse.