Fingernagelabdruck aus gehärteter Butter (Fingernail Impression in Hardened Butter), 1971

In this edition, Joseph Beuys transforms a simple domestic material into a work that bridges the realms of sculpture, body trace, and conceptual gesture. A hardened impression left by a fingernail in a block of butter-wax is presented in a plastic box mounted on gray cardboard, capturing a delicate but direct imprint of human contact.

By foregrounding the residue of a bodily action rather than a crafted form, the work reflects Beuys’s interest in process, imprint, and the ongoing dialogue between material and meaning. Butter—an organic substance laden with associations of nourishment, life, and transformation—becomes a site for subtle, quiet expression that resonates with his broader practice.

This work was published as a special edition of the first catalogue raisonné Joseph Beuys – Multiples + Prints.