ANSELM KIEFER: AN ARTISTIC PICK

 Hello to all the lovely creatures out there!

Today I'm here to introduce you to an artist that you might have heard before, as at this moment we are talking, a large exhibition about him is hosted in the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam! Hereby I introduce you Anselm Kiefer!

A little bit about him: He was born in Donaueschingen, Germany, in 1945 during the closing months of the World War II. After studying law and Romance languages, he attended the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität in Freiburg im Breisgau and the Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Karlsruhe, while maintaining contact with Joseph Beuys. From 1971 to 1992, he lived and worked in Hornbach, Buchen, and Höpfingen, Germany; since then, he has lived and worked in France.

 Fusing art and literature, painting and sculpture, Anselm Kiefer engages the complex events of history and the ancestral epics of life, death, and the cosmos. His monumental body of work represents a microcosm of collective memory, visually encapsulating a broad range of cultural, literary, and philosophical allusions, from the Old and New Testaments, Kabbalah mysticism, Norse mythology, and Wagner’s Ring cycle to the poetry of Ingeborg Bachmann and Paul Celan. In reflecting on Germany’s postwar identity and history, he also grapples with the national mythology of the Third Reich.

Field of  the Cloth of Gold - Anselm Kiefer - 2021

Kiefer’s oeuvre encompasses paintings, vitrines, installations, artist’s books, and an array of works on paper, including drawings, watercolors, collages, woodcuts, and photographs. The physical elements of his practice—from gold leaf, lead, concrete, and glass to textiles, tree roots, and burned books—are as symbolically resonant as they are wide-ranging. 

From the 1970s onward, Kiefer’s work has been shown at major museums worldwide in solo exhibitions. Other recent exhibitions include Livres et xylographies (Books and Woodcuts), Fondation Jan Michalski pour l’écriture et la littérature, Montricher, France (2019); Pour Paul Celan (For Paul Celan), Grand Palais Éphémère, Paris (2021–22); Questi scritti, quando verranno bruciati, daranno finalmente un po’ di luce (Andrea Emo) (These writings, when burned, will finally cast a little light [Andrea Emo]), Palazzo Ducale, Venice (2022–23); La photographie au commencement (Photography at the beginning), Lille Métropole Musée d’art moderne, d’art contemporain et d’art brut, Villeneuve d’Ascq, France (2023–24); and Angeli Caduti (Fallen Angels), Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, Italy (2024).

Punctum - Anselm Kiefer - 2024

That's a wrap today, Anselm Kiefer is an interesting artist to look at, especially if you are interested in different textures and textiles in artworks I believe it is someone for all of you. For anyone visiting Amsterdame you should also check the exhibition running in the Van Gogh museum as well. I hope you will find Kiefer as interesting as I did when I came across him.

See in a next post and as always thank you for reading

xoxoxo