184 / 191
| 86
PostWar & Contemporary
3480*
ANSELM KIEFER(Donaueschingen 1945 - lives and works
among others in Paris)
Nigredo-Albedo-Rubedo. 2006.
Oil, emulsion, lead, wood, terracotta soil,
fabric and wire, also 5 dried sunflowers.
Bound as a book with 9 pages, each page
consisting of cardboard and fibreboard.
Each 196 x 140 cm.
Sunflowers max. 430 cm.
Provenance:
- Acquired fromGalerie Thaddaeus
Ropac, Paris, by the present owner in
2007/2008.
- Since then private collection.
Anselm Kiefer is born in Donaueschingen,
two months before the end of the war. His
childhood in a bombed post-war Germa-
ny was to influence his art significantly.
Already as a child, his artist interests and
talent were apparent. After abandoning
his studies in jurisprudence, he enrols in an
art course with Horst Antes in Karlsruhe,
later moving to Düsseldorf under Joseph
Beuys as his mentor. With Beuys he shares
a fascination and preference for unusual
materials such as lead, ash, earth, sand,
flowers and straw. His works are influenced
by history, and he is often described as a
modern history painter. German history,
the ruins and landscapes, as well as my-
thology and Kabbalah are just some of the
themes which run through his entire work;
although it is the way in which he deals
with the subject of German history which
makes his oeuvre unique. In his works he
holds up a mirror before man, showing us
old historical wounds for contemplation
and urges towards rehabilitation.
In his early works, Kiefer asks the questi-
on whether, after the Holocaust and the
appropriation of culture and art by the
National Socialists, it is still possible to
be a “German artist”. His works therefo-
re examine unflinchingly the subject of
history and seek to excavate, to awaken
consciousness, and to transcend. Using
immense formats, and various materials
and techniques, Kiefer addresses these
themes. With expressive, powerful appli-
cation of colour, various layers of paint,
emulsions, blowtorches, collage, photo-
graphs, inscriptions and pictures, these
works become multi-layered documents,
in which the process of creation and
painting technique become the subject
itself and which support and elucidate the
overriding intention of the work.
His career begins in 1969 with a scandal: in
the series “Besetzungen” he performs the
Nazi salute in various German towns. The
public indignation is great, but it is a way
for him to address what has happened, to
critique, and to identify with his own history
and the fact of being German. An exhibi-
tion of a series with Biblical and German
mythological themes follows in 1973. The
pieces are inscribed with names, quota-
tions and inscriptions, as is typical in his
work. Monumental landscapes such as
“Märkische Heide”, a motif which he uses
occasionally as a symbol of the Prussian
character, also follow. Kiefer is often de-
scribed as a landscape painter – although
he does not see himself as such – for
landscapes are a leitmotif of his oeuvre.
The land is imbued with human events
and their history and forever marked by
these incidents. These wounds, traces
and signs are a source of fascination, but
also represent the profound meaning of
his work. His first installation “Die Frauen
der Revolution” takes place around 1984. It
comprises of thirteen beds of lead, spread
with crumpled lead sheets and an inden-
tation filled with water at the centre. Each
bed bears a paper label with 22 names of
women who played an important role in
the French Revolution. Further large scale
works in lead, such as his famous aircrafts,
rockets and books emerge.