Anselm Kiefer

Gagosian Gallery, Los Angeles
Acquired by the present owner from the above

Anselm Kiefer's use of multiple media in a single work of art blurs the line between painting and sculpture.  Untitled, from 2007, consists of a palm leaf, painted white, that rests upon what can best be described as a desert landscape.  The taupe, ochre, and black background made of earth and plaster upon which the palm frond rests is as streaked and cracked as a parched riverbed.  The palm is imbued with great religious significance; signifying Christ's return to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, the frond ultimately symbolizes the triumph of Christ and his people over their Roman occupiers.  Seen through the lens of Kiefer's own history, and that of Germany in the 20th century, the work becomes a meditation on the concepts of life, death, and ultimately redemption and resurrection.

By utilizing assemblage, Kiefer lends a spatial and temporal layer upon an otherwise static medium.  The white frond is not simply painted on the canvas, but rather is painted and on the canvas.  The branch seemingly grows from the parched desert floor below and thus it derives its power not solely from the artist's hand but from the physical world.