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PostWar & Contemporary
3479*
ANSELM KIEFER(Donaueschingen 1945 - lives and works
among others in Paris)
Die Ungeborenen.
Black&White photograph, reworked by
hand, with collage with lead and glass.
Titled upper left: die Ungeborenen.
60.5 x 94.5 cm.
Provenance
- Galerie Rackey, Bad Honnef.
- DorotheumVienna.
- Private collection Northern Germany.
- Private collection Southern Germany.
Literature:
Ardenne, Paul, u.a. (Hrsg.): Anselm Kiefer.
Sternenfall, Paris 2007 (comparable
works).
„It’s the other aspect of the unborn, the
desire of not wanting to be born. Cry of the
prophets, the revolt of Job. It would have
been better if you had never been born!
Everything happens as if it would have
been preferable not to be born. The ret-
rograde movement of creation. Theodicy,
the accident of creation, God’s regret to
have fathered this ungrateful being, this
outlaw, who does not abide to the con-
tract.“ (Anselm Kiefer, 2012)
In his series “Die Ungeborenen“ (“The
Unborn”), to which Anselm Kiefer devoted
himself between 2001 and 2011, the artist
grappled with the question of the origin
and creation of life. In order to fathom this
question and render it more tangible to
the spectator, Anselm Kiefer used well-
known mythology as well as the iconogra-
phy of Jewish and Christian faith. The state
of the unborn, respectively of the just
born, is regarded as an intermediate state
which then induces the question of who
one is and where one belongs.
The artist did not confine himself to only
one technique in this series, and used
large-format oil paintings, which some-
times refer directly to a myth, as well
as paper and collage works, such as the
present one.
CHF 85 000 / 95 000
(€ 78 700 / 87 960)