Anselm Kiefer - Only with wind with time and with sound

I discovered (and blogged about) Anselm Kiefer, born on 8 March, 1945, one of the most significant artists of our time, more than three years ago in an exhibition at the Essl-Museum. Now there's another exhibition until May which shows 15 works, among them four new ones.

I cite from the exhibit catalog: "For Anselm Kiefer" .... "the approach to recollection, memory, and particularly also to transience and forgetting, plays a very important role. With his often extensive works, he aims to make time tangible. The large-format, anti-heroic images of nature and histories, with decaying monuments, run down spots and morbid landscapes show a present that has been corroded, ravaged by the past. Against the emptiness Kiefer sets names in awkward handwriting, names of places, of gods, of people, occasionally whole lines of poetry, such as by Ingeborg Bachmann or Paul Celan".

The first photo shows "Only with wind with time and with sound". The line is taken from the poem "Exile" by the lyricist Ingeborg Bachmann, a compatriot, by the way.

"Only with wind with time and with sound" with its shades of grey, white and blue shows an apocalyptic, powerful, almost overwhelming landscape and sea. In the upper part of the picture you can see a book, made of lead. To Kiefer, leaden books represent the collective repository of memories.

Mela Maresch says in the exhibit catalog: "Nature appears overwhelming ...... However, human beings are still important, for they contribute to the shape of things through their existence ... They share their experiences with the Earth and are active creators, contributing to life's evolving nature".

Anselm Kiefer himself says "I believe that something comes to us from afar, and that memories are not only stored in our mind, but ingrained deeply in our cells". (Citation from the exhibit catalog, p. 115).

I think Anselm Kiefer has the ability to see and to show us parts and pieces of these memories. Maybe that's the reason why I always stand in wonder in front of his works of art and have a deep sense of recognition.

photos 2 and 3 show "Die große Fracht" (The heavy cargo) and "Horlogium".

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Discovering Kiefer

Kiefer 9
Originally uploaded by corwin1974

Last weekend we went to the Essl Museum near Vienna, to an exhibition of masterpieces of the German and Austrian painters Georg Baselitz, Markus Lüpertz, Anselm Kiefer, Gerhard Richter, Sigmar Polke, Arnulf Rainer and Maria Lassnig.

I am impressed by Sigmar Polke and Gerhard Richter, but I was overwhelmed by the works of Anselm Kiefer. I had heard of him, but I was not prepared for this deep symbolism, especially in "For Paul Celan 2005", with lines from a poem by Paul Celan, or "Sternenfall 1998" (Falling Stars). I could have stood there for hours and just get lost in the atmosphere and the details.

A short extract from Wikipedia:

Kiefer ranks among the best-known and most successful, but also most disputed German artists after World War II. In his entire body of work, Kiefer argues with the past and addresses taboo and controversial issues from recent history. Themes from Nazi rule are particularly reflected in his work; for instance, the painting "Margarethe" (oil and straw on canvas) was inspired by Paul Celan's well-known poem "Todesfuge" ("Death Fugue"). Polemical discussions in the media over the value of his artistic work have taken place for many decades.

His works are characterised by a dull/musty, nearly depressive, destructive style and are often done in large scale formats. In most of his works, the use of photography as an output surface is prevalent and earth and other raw materials of nature are often incorporated. It is also characteristic of his work to find signatures and/or names of humans, legendary figures or places particularly pregnant with history in nearly all of his paintings. All of these are encoded sigils through which Kiefer seeks to process the past; this often gets him linked with a style called "New Symbolism."