BELFAST. 1975. SIGNED AND NUMBERED FROM EDITION OF 100.

Heidelberg: Edition Staeck, 1975
29.7 x 9cm b/w lithograph on card. The image is a reproduced photomontage (created by an unknown Irish student) of Beuys landing “at Carrickfergus after his historic crossing of Belfast Lough, June 14th 1960”. The choice of text is interesting – the date is a clear re-ordering of the notorious “June 14th 1690” – the battle of the Boyne – which Ulster Unionists and Orangemen regard as a near-mythological victory over Catholicism in the North of Ireland. (Those same Protestants conveniently forgetting William of Orange’s actions were fully supported by the Pope). Beuys’ supposed crossing could be seen as a form of symbolic freeing of the North of Ireland or a rejoining of the two separate states. Thus the work is a political provocation – aligning Beuys very much with the Catholic republicans who were under UK state pressure during a misguided, if originally well-meaning, military occupation of the North. One of 100 signed and numbered copies. Fine condition although there is one small tape remant on the back where it has been used for mounting at some point. Scarce. Schellman no. 146.