The Shaman Joseph Beuys: From the alchemical ritual to the christian ritual

The creative work of the German artist Joseph Beuys is characterized for being one of most hermetic and complex of the contemporary art. His sources of inspiration are based on anthroposophy, the romantic Germans, the alchemy and the Christianity. These two last points will be treated in this article, being connected under the characteristic that he most liked to represent: the role of the shaman, able to become from his own physical and mental difficulties and to recreate a wide typology of substances and materials characterized by their power properties. The following text gathers diverse references related to the alchemy and the Christianity, like important part of the pillars that allowed to built his practical and theoretical work.