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Matt Thomas

Art 221

Anselm Kiefer is a German artist who was born in Donaueschingen, Germany on March 8, 1945.

Most of Kiefers works make use of materials such as straw, ash, clay, lead, and shellac. It is said that

Kiefers works address controversial issues and some of them reflect Nazi rule. His works therefore are

said to confront his cultures dark past on a large scale. It is also interesting to note that most of his

works have signatures or names of historically important people or legendary figures. In this way, his

works can somewhat be classified as New Symbolism.

One of Kiefers works titled Die Funfte Psaune shows what appears to be a plane wing at the

top and a bunker at the bottom. This artwork is made with gouache on photography. The image appears

to have a sense of direction in that everything seems to flow point from the bottom left to the top right.

This image to me seems to reflect on the history of the Holocaust when the planes started to attack the

concentration camps. This art works seems to capture that moment when those camps were being

attacked by the plane however in this drawing, it is like that moment in time was frozen and time was

allowed to do its part and making everything look like its been there awhile. The use of greyscale in this

image appears to portray what a dark time that was for the people who were in the camp. However, the

place shown in this picture shows what seems to be an abandoned camp and the light area towards the

center of the image represents that the event of the time is all over. However, the dark area from the

wing overhead still gives the impression that even though this time is past, there is still that piece of

history hanging over our heads. Its not something that can be forgotten easily. In this photograph, the

combination of straight, wavy, jagged and cracked edges and lines give this image a sense of chaos.

However, it is controlled chaos.

Another one of Anselm Kiefers work is Geheimnis der Ferne or Secret of the ferns. In this

painting, Kiefer uses a fern, hair, melted lead, clay, acrylic, emulsions on lead on wood. The style of this

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painting could be categorized as maybe surreal. This painting is mostly black and white with tints and

shades. The only real color in this painting is the real fern that Kiefer puts on the canvas. The painting

was probably named the Secret of The Fern because of what is in the background. The background the

fern is set on is of no particular setting. Its just a background of white with black dots and some shading.

The hundreds of black dots on the white background maybe give this painting a feeling of background

noise. With this noise, it may be why its the secret of the fern because we dont know what really lies

behind the undefined background. Here, the artist maybe is trying to emphasis that sometimes, what is

behind isnt important and what is right in front is all there really is. Although it may be called the secret

of the fern, there may not be much secrets at all to the fern. And if there were any secrets, it is of little

importance.

A third painting of Kiefer is titled Die bosen Mutter, or Evil Mother. This painting consists of

five chairs that appear to be floating in mid-air. Each chair looks to have a few twigs sitting in them

except the middle one which has a big bunch of twigs. On the ground, there appears to be bushes with

all their branches cut off. Whats left of the bushes is the trunk. This painting is made of oil, emulsion,

acrylic, shellac, chalk, branches, wood and iron on canvas. The significance of the floating chair in the

middle with the biggest bunch of branches shows which seat is the dominant one. Also the big cluster

of branches on the middle chair acts as the main focus point. The other chairs to either side act as

directional objects which get the viewer to follow them to the center chair. In a way, this picture is

maybe surreal and abstract because the chairs look like theyre floating over rows of what look like just

the trunks of some bush or plant. In a sense, the chairs are like the overseers of the field of dead plants.

The use of only black and white maybe hints at a dark time. The use of straight and curved lines in this

painting make some parts stand out and objects distinguishable as well. The floating chairs over dead

crops may be a possible representation of Germanys past with the chairs acting like the dictators while

the dead plants below represent all the people who suffered under the cruel rule of Hitler and his Nazi

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party. Even though this is titled Evil Mother, it may be a parallel representation of Hitler only in his case,

it would be the Evil Father.