APPOART

“Life is an illusion”

Anselm Kiefer is a prominent German painter and sculptor known for his large-scale works that confront Germany’s dark past, particularly the Nazi era. Born in 1945 in Donaueschingen, Kiefer studied at several art academies in the late 1960s before becoming a student of Joseph Beuys, who encouraged his use of symbolic imagery to ironically address 20th century German history.

In the 1970s, Kiefer created a series of staged photographs called “Occupations” showing himself giving the Nazi salute in occupied countries, which caused a scandal when published in 1975. His early paintings like “Germany’s Spiritual Heroes” (1973) and “Operation Sea Lion” (1975) developed a visual vocabulary to comment on German history and culture. Later works in the 1980s incorporated materials like sand, wood, and lead to create intense physical presences.

Since the 1990s, Kiefer has lived and worked primarily in France. His later paintings and sculptures have expanded to consider myths, poems, and scientific theories as ways to understand the world. Kiefer has received numerous honors, including the Praemium Imperiale prize for painting in 1999.

Artistic style:

Kiefer uses a wide range of materials in his paintings beyond just oil paint, such as straw, ash, clay, lead, and shellac. These materials are often incorporated directly into the canvas.

The use of these materials gives his paintings a thick, encrusted surface with heavy impasto. The materials are not disguised but showcased in their natural form.

Lead is a material Kiefer is particularly drawn to for its symbolic resonance, considering it the only material heavy enough to bear the burden of history.

Kiefer’s paintings often deal with themes related to German history, mythology, and identity, including the Nazi era and the Holocaust.

He incorporates symbolic imagery and motifs like sigils, occult icons, architectural elements, and landscapes to provoke an emotional and psychological effect.

Text is frequently incorporated into his paintings, including excerpts from poems, novels, and names of historical figures written in a scrawling script.

Scale and Physicality

Kiefer’s paintings are known for their monumental scale, often confronting the viewer with their imposing physical presence.

The scale and materials used create a stark, haunting quality to the works. Ruins and debris are recurring motifs, which Kiefer sees as symbols of new beginnings.

Kiefer’s style was influenced by his mentor Joseph Beuys, who encouraged his use of unconventional materials.

He is considered part of the Neo-Expressionist movement, which diverged from Minimalism to develop new representational languages.

Kiefer’s style also shows the influence of Abstract Expressionism and Conceptual art, as well as German Romantic painters like Caspar David Friedrich.

Most important works:

“Margarethe” (1981)

This painting references the poem “Todesfuge” by Paul Celan, which poetically describes the horrors of the Holocaust.

“Shulamite” (1983)

This large-scale painting depicts the courtyard of Hitler’s Chancellery in Berlin, referencing the Nazi regime’s architectural legacy. 

“To the Unknown Painter” (1983)

This painting also depicts the courtyard of Hitler’s Chancellery, continuing Kiefer’s exploration of Nazi architecture and its symbolic resonance. 

Exhibitions:

Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, Italy

Exhibition Title: “Fallen Angels” (Angeli caduti)

Dates: March 22 – July 21, 2024

Curator: Arturo Galansino

This major exhibition at Palazzo Strozzi will present a comprehensive look at Kiefer’s work, featuring both historical pieces and new productions.

The exhibition aims to explore the complexity of Kiefer’s art, showcasing the interplay of figure and abstraction, nature and artificiality, creation and destruction.

Kiefer’s monumental, material-rich works will be displayed in dialogue with the Renaissance architecture of Palazzo Strozzi.