Anselm Kiefer

Anselm Kiefer's great contribution to the history of art is his complex amalgamation of a variety of materials and paint within a narrative structure drawn from grand historical, mythological and literary sources. Kiefer's objective is to transform his canvas into something extraordinary and sublime, much like the process of alchemy which is inherently linked with his work. 

In Leviathan, lead is his substance of choice and its incorporation is a homage to his teacher, German conceptual artist Joseph Beuys, who often used unusual everyday materials to make art, such as fat and carpet felt.  Kiefer once commented in an interview that lead has a much stronger effect on him than any other medium and that he believes it to have always been a source of ideas; in the alchemy this material was the first step in the extraction of gold.  As reflected in the exhibition catalogue for Kiefer's 1999 exhibition in Bologna, "Lead is for Kiefer, in keeping with alchemical tradition, the magic metal which preserves memory; which, with its own soft weight, creates a reduced, weary representation of the world in order to absorb the wounds in its wrinkled skin.  Kiefer's use of lead, whether for sculpture or as a support for painting, always brings a tragic sinking, a relentless precipitation into the night-time soul of a restless, agitated and furious conscience which flowers in an absent and melancholy gaze" (Exhibition Catalogue, Bologna, Galleria d'Arte Moderna di Bologna, Anselm Kiefer: Stelle cadenti, 1999, p. 87).

Leviathan is ripe with meaning and is inscribed into the exposed lead element at the centre of the composition.  The word 'Leviathan' has several different interpretations but collectively has come to be synonymous with any large aquatic monster or creature.  In the novel Moby Dick by Herman Melville it refers to great whales.  In Modern Hebrew it simply translates to "whale".  The Christian reading often regards Leviathan as a demon or natural monster who detained Jonah for three days in his stomach before he was eventually spat out.  Leviathan is also associated with Satan or the Devil and his jaw-bone is considered the entrance to hell.  The object in the centre of the composition appears as a boat, stewing in the wrath of the Leviathan.  Deep colours of brown, blue, black and grey swirl around the centre and Kiefer's almost primordial sense of texture, too, is represented here. Another interpretation recalls an aircraft carrier, inevitably evoking Kiefer's Melancholia, one of four large-scale lead sculpture airplanes that the artist created in 1990-91. Immediately the viewer has images of war and destruction in his mind. Kiefer's lead-winged creation recalls the ravages of the air raids of World War II, which ended the year the artist was born. Through these connotations, the painting could be understood as a foreboding of an apocalypse, which humanity creates over and over again. Furthermore, this work was executed during the Iraq war and therefore can also be seen as an appeal against war.

Another word Kiefer has incorporated into his composition is found in the upper right corner - Behemoth - written in capital letters.  In Christianity, during the middle ages, Behemoth was put on a level with Satan.  Behemoth is the beast par excellence mentioned in the Book of Job, 40:15-24.  He has been described as a heavily built, imbecile demon, who has a fondness for sweet things and strength in his loins.  In the Jewish faith, Behemoth is the primal unconquerable monster of the land, as Leviathan is the primal monster of the waters and the sea and Ziz is the primordial monster of the sky.  The legend exists that Leviathan and Behemoth shall hold a battle at the end of the world, eventually killing each other, and the surviving men feast on their meat.  According to tradition, it is impossible for anyone to kill a behemoth except for the person who created it, in this case the God of the Hebrews.  A later Jewish version claims that at the banquet at the end of the world, the behemoth will be served up along with the Leviathan and Ziz.

As Daniel Arasse observes these words are integral to the composition and to our understanding of Kiefer's art: "The images of Anselm Kiefer are inhabited, haunted by words, be they visible words, readable in his painting, or those that are invisible, either because they're buried under newer layers, or because, accompanying Kiefer throughout his work, they've been deposited, displaced, transformed until what is left to be seen are only those that will give their name, finally, to the work.  This active presence of a verbal thought, at work in the work, manifests itself also by the themes (literary, historical or mythical) that Kiefer treats, and by the impressive dimension of his iconography, in the most classic meaning of the term, but made rigorously personal and up-to-date by his appropriation" (Daniel Arasse in Exhibition Catalogue, Paris, Galerie Yvon Lambert, Anselm Kiefer: Cette obscure clarté qui tombe des étoiles, 1996, n.p.)

Kiefer's endless fascination with the meanings of religious revelation, especially their mystical variants, consistently appears in his work and most recently, has become the subject for his recent exhibition Anselm Kiefer: Heaven and Earth at the Hirshhorn Museum, Washington D.C. and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art where a later example entitled Leviathan, 2005 was exhibited.  The exhibition revealed Kiefer as an artist who ultimately sought to depict mankind's situation: his position on the terrestrial sphere and his celestial better.