Anselm Kiefer
Anselm Kiefer - Hortus Conclusus 2007 - 2014 , 380x255cm Collage of woodcuts on canvas with acrylic and shellac
Anselm is a German painter and sculptor
His work incorporate materials such as straw, ash , clay, lead and shellac.
His works are characterised by an unflinching willingness to confront his cultures dark past and unrealised potential.
Kiefer grew up in the aftermath of bombed houses, something which made a profound impact on him.
His work
He uses Shellac, a material that keeps changing, in colour over time.
Fire is a constant in his work, It destroys and purifies at the same time and it creates new things like they arise from the ashes.
His work is very much about metamorphosis and transformation a constant process of change.
This concept applies to his choice of materials too as they too experience change as he uses them.
Anselm Kiefer The Rhine 1993, 374x284.5cm Collage of woodcuts on canvas with acrylic and shellac
After the war he took more interest in woodblock.
He would carve one portrait per day into the woodblocks
Generally he tends to join the individual portraits together.
In the Rhine he takes advantage of the material itself.
He uses actual planks by soaking them in colour and slapping them on paper. He the cuts them out and uses them for collage on paper
