Beuys's distinctive use of industrial objects took shape in his Kurhaus years, but some of his earliest artistic traces can be found in Schloss Moyland ( moyland.de), a neo-Gothic castle outside Kleve housing the art collection of the van der Grinten brothers, two early supporters.

WSJ: Touring Beuys-World in Germany's Lower Rhine

This mighty apparition, whose legs curve up the drill like the arches in a Gothic cathedral, was one of the first robots to emerge in Western art.

WSJ: Masterpiece: Jacob Epstein's Prophesy