Anselm Kiefer

Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Salzburg
Acquired by the present owner from the above in 2006

Anselm Kiefer: I Sette Palazzi Celesti, Hangar Bicocca, Paris, 2004, n. p., illustrated in color

This work is in very good condition overall. Please refer to the following condition report prepared by Simon Parkes Art Conservation. This work is unframed.
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Anselm Kiefer's oeuvre is rich in layers of imagery and symbolic complexity that seek to convey the human condition, the historical past and a desire for transcendence. Cosmos and Demian contains just such a labyrinth of allusions with its imagery of towers and reference to the early Christian faith. Cosmos and Demian is named for two 3^rd century physicians, often depicted as twins, who converted many to the Christianity through their charitable medical work. Refusing to recant their faith, they were martyred and later canonized as saints. Early churches were built in their name in Jerusalem, Egypt and Mesopotamia, while Emperor Justinian I dedicated a church in their name in Constantinople that became a center for pilgrimage. In Rome, the 6^th century basilica of Santi Cosma e Damiano still stands today. These ancient architectural monuments to the saints are closely related to Kiefer's theme of heaven and earth, as often expressed in his imagery of towers as in Cosmos and Demian. In the year prior to the present work, Kiefer had created a monumental installation at the Hangar Bicocca in Milan, titled The Seven Heavenly Palaces, which consists of seven towers of concrete and steel that represent the mystical ascension to spirituality as inspired by the Jewish Kabbalah.

For Kiefer, architecture is clearly a potent symbol of great spiritual dichotomy that mirrors the polarity of heaven and earth. Rendered in clay and exhibiting a textured surface, the towers in Cosmos and Demian represent permanence and ruin, celebration and destruction. Time passes and man's vanities and aspirations ultimately return to earth. As Kiefer expressed, "Each of these buildings has a history created by its own fiction and need to demonstrate its philosophy of existence. That fiction is part of the debris of history. My images connect with that debris. They attempt to connect with the beginning or the end, with a deep and lost memory between here and there." (Exh. Cat., Fort Worth, Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Anselm Kiefer: Heaven and Earth, 2005, p. 41)