Anselm Kiefer

The Artist
Benefit auction, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, June 1998
Barbara Mathes Gallery, New York
Acquired by the present owner from the above

This work is in very good condition overall. Please refer to the following condition report prepared by Simon Parkes Art Conservation. This work is framed.
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The character of Lilith is a recurring and powerful motif through many of Kiefer's works including Lilith (1987-1988) in the Tate Collection in London and Lilith on the Red Sea (1990) in the collection of the Museum für Gegenwart, Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin. The figure of Lilith has many ancient precedents but in Jewish folklore, she is the first wife of Adam, created from the same earth as Adam as opposed to Eve who sprang from his rib. The legend that influenced much of literature and art over the centuries revolved around Lilith's desire to be an equal of Adam and her refusal to be subservient. In one version of the legend, she fled to the Red Sea, never to return to the Garden of Eden and thus represents a figure of freedom. In other versions, she was doomed to give birth to one hundred children a day, and often characterized as populating the world with evil.

In Kiefer, the contradictions inherent to the versions of the Lilith legend relates to the complexity of the German history of the 20^th century, the variable nature of good and evil and the fragility of life. In the present work, two clay encrusted dresses float over a cityscape, representing Lilith and one of her children in a contemporary context of urban sprawl. The photograph is of São Paulo, Brazil and was taken by Kiefer in 1987 when he visited there for the 19^th Bienal de São Paulo. Images of the city recur in various works by Kiefer, most importantly in The High Priestess. Begun in 1985 and completed in 1989, this monumental opus consists of over 200 books in two steel bookcases, bound together with copper wire and weighing over 40 tons. Both works symbolize Kiefer's grasp of the mystery of knowledge and history, most particularly its hidden meanings and mystical beginnings which were open to interpretation and re-imagining.