a pilot in a german luftwaffe, joseph beuys was shot down during world war ii.his brush with death permeates his works. here a man appears to be in the jaws of a reptile entrapped in a pipe. it is like an ancient tartan on its side, suggesting death and birth at the same time. for beuys, each element in the world has the same value. for him, there is no difference between animals, plants, objects, or human beings. all share the same energy. he envisioned a world where everyone was an artist. his work dramatizes unrealized potential, like the sound of flowers decaying or the symbolic power of the cross. this piano is wrapped in felt like an elephant's hide, but the concert grand is not dead, only mute. underneath, it can still be played. yves klein had the desire to purify reality, painting everything blue. this kind of blue has been invented by klein to represent and to symbolize the spirituality and the material sensibility that permeates any substance. in a carefully orchestrated event in the early sixties, klein took these models and made them his paintbrushe