Anslem Kiefer born 1945
Drawing of a pile of lead books with a lead boat on top - NAGLFAR, 1998
Anselm Kiefer is a German painter and sculptor who was born in 1945. His art has evolved over the last thirty years through a process of layering, interweaving and reworking of themes, motifs and patterns, that encircle and intersect with one another across very different media including photographs, gouache and watercolours, painting, books, prints, sculptures, installation and huge studio based enterprises. The results are then photographed and provide material for further books, gouaches and paintings in their turn.
Exhibition at the White Cube Gallery, London 2012
During the 1970s Kiefer studied with other influential German artists, including Joseph Beuys and Peter Dreher. They no doubt shared a vision of taking art into new directions, using novel media and addressing controversial historical and political issues. Keifer began his career as a photographer and he has continued to use photography as an output surface, with earth and other materials of nature, wood and plants, incorporated into his work. These incorporate unorthodox media including straw, ash, clay, lead, rust and shellac in productions of his characterised by a dull, misty, nearly depressive and destructive style. They are often in a large scale format The poems of Paul Celan have played an important role in developing Kiefer's themes of German history and the horror of the Holocaust, as have the spiritual concepts of Kabbalah.
Kiefers work addresses fundamental questions about human history and the nature of our existence.In his entire body of work, Kiefer argues with the past and addresses taboo and controversial issues from recent history. Themes from Nazi rule are particularly reflected in his work; for instance, the painting "Margarethe" (oil and straw on canvas) was inspired by Paul Celan's well-known poem "Todesfuge" ("Death Fugue") which depicts the fate of an ashen haired Jewish woman in a concentration camp with that of a golden haired German woman.
His works are characterised by an unflinching willingness to confront his culture's dark past, and unrealized potential, in works that are often made on a large, confrontational scale well suited to the subjects. It is also a characteristic of his work to find signatures and names of people of historical importance, legendary figures or places particularly pregnant with history. These works incorporate encoded sigils through which Kiefer seeks to process the past. A practice which has resulted in his work being linked with a style called New Symbolism.
When discussing Kiefer, the art critic Robert Hughes describes the tension of private conscience and public responsibility. He describes Kiefer's investigation into memory, identity and nationality – the attractive and corrosive nature of power and asks the question 'What can I remember, what should I remember?