Bohemia Lies by the Sea, 1996Oil, emulsion, shellac, charcoal, and powdered paint on burlap; Overall: H. 75-1/4, W. 221 in. Two panels, each: H. 75-1/4, W. 110-1/2 in.

Anselm Kiefer

Kiefer belongs to the German generation growing up after the war and Nazi dictatorship. As an artist, he attempts to take into account the disastrous, ultimately catastrophic processes of German history and to translate his reflections into art..

Anselm Kiefer was born on March 8, 1945, in Donaueschingen in the German state of Baden-Württemberg during the final days of the collapse of the Third Reich.

The son of an art teacher, Kiefer studied law and French at the university in Freiburg (1965); after a retreat at the Dominican priory at La Tourette he pursued art at Karlsruhe Art Academy under Horst Antes.

In the early 1970s he studied informally with Joseph Beuys. Beuys was a crucial and foremost influence on the works of Kiefer.

During the 1960s German art was succumbing to the hard-edged style of American Pop Art, and many German artists feared they were losing their identities.

Instead of unemotionally advancing a pre-existent, stylistic mode, he began to use art to explore his own psyche and that of his countrymen.

Your Golden Hair,

Margarete 1981; Oil, emulsion, and straw on canvas, 51 3/16 x 67 in

Kiefer’s iconography is taken from extremely varied sources – “from German history and culture to the Jewish Cabbala, and by way of alchemy.

Also from Mesopotamian mythology and allusions to Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, atomic energy, and Elizabeth of Austria” are all very complex and deep contents that Kiefer deal with.

REMNANTS OF SUN, 1997 emulsion, acrylic, shellac,burnt clay, sand on canvas149x220 in.

Isaac Abravanel: das Gastmahl des Levithan Oil, emulsion, acrylic on canvas with lead boats  149 5/8 x 220 1/2 in.

Bohemia Lies by the Sea

“Bohemia Lies by the Sea” functions as a narrative work conveying the story of a distraught and uncertain land. Kiefer also exploits another powerful iconographical symbol, the Poppy flower, to represent dreams, sleep, and death. The pink-orange poppies on both sides of the rutted country road are also emblematic of military veterans, whose presence is evoked by occasional drips of paint that is the color of dried blood. Kiefer uses the barren landscape to stage his dramas of Germany past and present.

Unlike the conventions surrounding the traditional use of iconography, there is no rule governing the relationship between Kiefer’s motifs and the themes to which they are thought to signify.

The more time we spend with his work, and the more adept we become at finding our bearings within it, the greater we sense its labyrinthine quality.