Anselm Kiefer

Yvon Lambert, Paris
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner

Colour: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate, although the overall tonality is deeper and richer in the original. The illustration fails to fully convey the depth and texture of the three-dimensional elements. Condition: This work is in very good condition. There are a few light media accretions to the metal frame and a few irregularities which are in keeping with the artist's choice of medium and working process.
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Throughout his long and venerable career, Anselm Kiefer has continued to produce works that challenge the viewer and defy conventional artistic definitions. Born into a Germany shattered by the ravages of war, his art frequently sought to find ways of coping with and examining the immensely difficult social and political situation which existed in the country during the early part of his life.

In 1993 Kiefer staged his exhibition, 20 Jahre Einsamkeit, at the Marion Goodman Gallery in New York. This ground breaking show was organised at a time of great personal change for Kiefer; he had declared that he felt, ‘trapped in the studio and Germany,’ and was to spend the next three years travelling extensively (quoted in Exhibition Catalogue Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Anselm Kiefer, Heaven and Earth, 2006, p. 94). Visitors to the exhibition were greeted by a towering pile of Kiefer’s own artworks, liberally encrusted with earth and dried plants. Yet it was the installation within another part of the gallery which caused the most controversy: Kiefer placed 26 white books, the pages of which were stained with his own semen, on top of piles of lead that came from the roof of Cologne Cathedral. Both installations involve desecration of a sort – the cathartic ruination of years of his own work, alongside the deliberate de-sanctification of elements of one of the holiest sites in Germany. The latter act indicates the artist’s often difficult relationship with Catholicism, the religion in which he had been raised. Yet there is an element of purification inherent in the creation of this particular manifestation of 20 Jahre Einsamkeit, as Michael Auping notes: ‘Kiefer in essence writes his own bible using his sperm. What to some could seem like an act of defilement is for Kiefer another symbolic act of regeneration and self-determination’ (ibid. p. 39).

The dating of the current lot – 1993-2008 – indicates the long term importance that Kiefer attaches to this series, revealing that the concerns that prompted the Marian Goodman show remain a key element of his creations today. This present incarnation of 20 Jahre Einsamkeit is a stunning manifestation of the ideas behind this series. Glimpsed through the richly textured layer of twigs and branches can be seen a photograph of the discarded contents of Kiefer’s studio, the pile soaring upwards until it is lost behind the delicate haze of the branches. Kiefer’s works are often highly textured, but the sheer abundance of natural fauna adorning the present work is remarkable for its beauty.  Studded with the dried remains of flowers, the thicket of twigs at the base of the piece projects out to envelop the viewer into Kiefer’s creation. The delicate autumnal colours of the flowers elevates Kiefer’s palette to create an image of extraordinary beauty which encapsulates the themes which have dominated his work for the last two decades.