\u201cI put the contemporary together with the depths of history.\u201d<\/p>\n– Anselm Kiefer<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n At the beginning of his artistic career he published a series of photographs titled Occupations<\/em>, which stirred controversy in his country. The provocative work captures Kiefer wearing his father\u2019s military uniform and posing in the Hitlergru\u00df salute in several locations. Though the series heavily differs from the work he\u2019d go on to famously produce, it laid the groundwork for the themes he would\u00a0 continue to explore. When describing his artistic approach, Kiefer expressed: \u201cI was putting myself in the role. I wanted to know what I would have done. Because it is not easy in such times to stand against power, like now in Russia.\u201d However, many misinterpreted the ironic statement he was conveying in his series, and believed he was embracing Nazi imagery. Despite his collection of work being successful in many countries, it didn\u2019t receive the same reception in his homeland Germany. Kiefer expressed his thoughts on the public\u2019s opinion: \u201cThey are not hesitant about my work, they are just against it. And now they say I am out of time, old-fashioned.\u201d The negative reception stemmed from the themes of his artwork: many Germans believe his themes are too repetitive and no longer worth pursuing. Despite this pushback, Kiefer continues to explore his country\u2019s traumatic past in his artwork. He took on painting, and began experimenting with materials such as lead and straw in his sculptures. Regarded as a big name in contemporary art, he has also made significant contributions to the Neo-Expressionist movement that is characterized by \u201cviolently emotive, textural works\u201d. Many of Kiefer\u2019s paintings depict bleak landscapes that similarly transmit the theme of desolation as the works he has created on other mediums.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFor me, a landscape is never a landscape, it\u2019s the memory of history.\u00a0You see the ruins of history in the landscape.”<\/p>\n– Anselm Kiefer<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n In one of his paintings, Kiefer incorporated an excerpt from \u2018Death Fugue\u2019, a poem created by post-war poet Paul Celan that details the prisoners\u2019 nonstop pain and agony in a concentration camp. Kiefer heavily credits Celan\u2019s poetry, which describe his experience at a concentration camp, as a main source of inspiration for his paintings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Avoiding the acknowledgement of the Third Reich won\u2019t make Germany\u2019s legacy disappear. Nowadays, many schools actively teach the history of the Third Reich, but the circumstances of Kiefer\u2019s childhood were largely different. After a long time spent pursuing his artistic calling, the artist was able to effectively create works that brought \u201csocial issues to the forefront contemporary discussions\u201d and transmit the guilt brought by horrors that can\u2019t be adequately put into words.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bibliography: <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAnselm Kiefer \u2013 Essence-Eksistence.\u201d ARTIPELAG. 25 Nov. 2022. \u201cAnselm Kiefer, The Seven Heavenly Palaces, HangarBicocca, Milan.\u201d Aesthetica. 1 Sep. 2015. \u201cANSELM KIEFER – The Seven Heavenly Palaces 2004-2015.\u201d Pirelli HangarBicocca. 29 Nov. 2022. \u201cAnselm Kiefer: Uraeus: Interview.\u201d Gagosian Quarterly. 11 Feb. 2019. Cohen, Roger. \u201cAnselm Kiefer Raises History\u2019s Ghosts.\u201d The New York Times. 18 Nov. 2022. Duncan, Alexandra. \u201cAnselm Kiefer Artist Overview and Analysis.\u201d The Art Story. 08 May 2015. Knausgaard, Ove Karl. \u201cInto the Black Forest With the Greatest Living Artist.\u201d The New Lankarani, Nazanin. \u201cIn Late Summer, Anselm Kiefer Captures the Harvest.\u201d The New \u201cNeo-Expressionism.\u201d Sotheby\u2019s. 29 Jan. 2020. Born during the final months of World War II in Donaueschingen, Germany, Anselm Kiefer belongs to the generation of Germans who dealt with…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":669,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-creative-arts","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blueandread.asbarcelona.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blueandread.asbarcelona.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blueandread.asbarcelona.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blueandread.asbarcelona.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blueandread.asbarcelona.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=665"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blueandread.asbarcelona.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":675,"href":"https:\/\/blueandread.asbarcelona.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665\/revisions\/675"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blueandread.asbarcelona.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blueandread.asbarcelona.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blueandread.asbarcelona.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blueandread.asbarcelona.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Being the son of an art teacher, painter and sculptor he had artistic inclinations from an early age. A significant moment that inspired his craft was the night of his birth, when his house was bombed. He had no toys as a child and the area by his house was filled with ruins, which prompted him to collect debris and build a house of his own. \u201cI always built houses, even as a little boy\u201d, he revealed. One of his most prominent works is an installation of discarded ship containers titled Seven Heavenly Palaces<\/em>, which represent the ruins of Western Civilization following the Second World War. The inside of the towers contains lead, a frequently used material by the sculptor, which he deems as the \u201cmaterial of melancholy.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blueandread.asbarcelona.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/KIEFER01.jpg\")
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https:\/\/artipelag.se\/en\/at-artipelag\/anselm-kiefer-essence-eksistence\/.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
https:\/\/aestheticamagazine.com\/anselm-kiefer-the-seven-heavenly-palaces-hangarbicocca-milan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
https:\/\/pirellihangarbicocca.org\/en\/anselm-kiefer\/.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
https:\/\/gagosian.com\/quarterly\/2019\/02\/11\/interview-anselm-kiefer-uraeus\/.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/11\/18\/arts\/design\/anselm-kiefer.html.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
https:\/\/www.theartstory.org\/artist\/kiefer-anselm\/.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
York Times. 12 Feb. 2020.
https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2020\/02\/12\/magazine\/anselm-kiefer-art.html?action=click&modul
e=RelatedLinks&pgtype=Article.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
York Times. 13 Aug. 2020.
https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2020\/08\/13\/arts\/anselm-kiefer-salzburg.html?action=click&module=RelatedLinks&pgtype=Article.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
https:\/\/www.sothebys.com\/en\/art-movements\/neo-expressionism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"