The ''Fettecke'' (Ger: ''"Fat Corner"'') was an abstract work of art from the German artist

Joseph Beuys Joseph Heinrich Beuys ( , ; 12 May 1921 – 23 January 1986) was a German artist, teacher, performance artist, and art theorist whose work reflected concepts of humanism, sociology, and anthroposophy. He was a founder of a provocative art mov ...

. On April 28, 1982, Beuys placed five kilograms of butter in a corner of his art room about two meters below the ceiling in the main building of the

Kunstakademie Düsseldorf The Kunstakademie Düsseldorf is the academy of fine arts of the state of North Rhine Westphalia at the city of Düsseldorf, Germany. Notable artists who studied or taught at the academy include Joseph Beuys, Gerhard Richter, Magdalena Jetelová, ...

(Düsseldorf Academy of Art). His motivation for the artwork came from the anticipation of

Lama Lama (; "chief") is a title for a teacher of the Dharma in Tibetan Buddhism. The name is similar to the Sanskrit term ''guru'', meaning "heavy one", endowed with qualities the student will eventually embody. The Tibetan word "lama" means "hi ...

Sogyal Rinpoche Sogyal Rinpoche (; 1947 – 28 August 2019) was a Tibetan Dzogchen lama. He was recognized as the incarnation of a Tibetan master and visionary saint of the 19th century, Tertön Sogyal Lerab Lingpa. Sogyal Rinpoche was the founder and forme ...

, whom Beuys had invited on behalf of the

Dalai Lama Dalai Lama (, ; ) is a title given by the Tibetan people to the foremost spiritual leader of the Gelug or "Yellow Hat" school of Tibetan Buddhism, the newest and most dominant of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism. The 14th and current Dal ...

in Europe, and a seminar of the Free International University. In the Period that followed, the plastic served as "a constant demonstration object."Johannes AmEnde, Joseph Beuys: Joseph Beuys und die Fettecke: eine Dokumentation zur Zerstörung der Fettecke in der Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, Edition Staeck, Heidelberg 1987,

The end of the ''Fettecke''

In 1986, a custodian in the Art Academy of Düsseldorf cleaned up the butter about nine months after Beuys' death. Johannes Stuettgen claimed ownership of the art piece, as Beuys had said "Johannes, I'm finally making your Fettecke" at the time of its creation.

References

{{art-stub Works by Joseph Beuys Abstract art 1982 works