Celtic + ~~~~ is one of 187 “multiples” by Joseph Beuys included in the D.Daskalopoulos Collection Gift. Between 1965 and 1986, Beuys produced over 500 multiples—editioned objects that vary in form, material, and number. While some editions included as few as six objects, others were endlessly produced. Beuys’s multiples were a significant part of his practice because they functioned as a direct-to-individual vehicle for the artist’s ideas, which were deeply informed by his social and environmental advocacy. They also allowed for his work to be distributed more widely than was possible through the traditional art market.

As with Celtic + ~~~~, Beuys’s objects were often integrally linked to his performances, or what he termed Aktionen (actions). This particular work is a suitcase containing artifacts from a 1971 performance of the same name during which Beuys spread clumps of gelatine on the walls, recollected it, and poured it over his body. The glass jar in this work holds some of that gelatinous material, while 10 photographs and a film document the action. The artwork’s title refers to the Celtic people of Scotland whose cultural heritage had a major impact on Beuys’s artistic ideas, especially his belief in sacred landscapes. The wet gelatine evokes the bogs of Scotland, which Beuys called “the last European wilderness.” An environmentalist, Beuys believed that a closer relationship with nature could heal social and political wounds.