The major work at the Beuys Is Here exhibition on view at the De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill until the 27th of September is Scala Napoletana (“Neapolitan Ladder”). The 1985 sculpture, completed by Joseph Beuys near the end of his life, was inspired by a ladder the German conceptual artist spotted on the island of Capri. Held upright by wires connecting it to lead spheres, Joseph’s ladder is oddly proportioned: the spacing between its long parallel members is narrow whereas the gaps between its rungs are rather wide. The meaning behind this paradox has baffled art critics as well as the man most intimately acquainted with the sculpture, Kyle, the attendant who’s shared a room with it, the De La Warr’s Gallery 2, since early July. When I began to tell my wife Viv about similar ladders I’d seen at vineyards in southern Italy, Kyle sidled over and doubled the size of my audience. [Read more...]