Anselm Kiefer retrospective
The Royal Academy of Arts in London is honouring the German artist Anselm Kiefer with a major retrospective.
'Genius or provocateur?' was the headline in The Times in September 2014. This question has come up again and again since 1969, when, as an art student, Anselm Kiefer drew attention to himself with eight self-portraits with his arm raised in a Hitler salute. In the meantime, however, the art world is agreed that Kiefer – who was born in 1945 a few weeks before the end of World War II in Donaueschingen in the Black Forest – is an exceptional artist. His work has been shown at the most important international art exhibitions, the Documenta in Kassel and the Venice Biennale. He was the first painter ever to receive the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, as well as the Praemium Imperiale of the Japan Art Association – the 'Nobel Prize of the Arts'. And now he is being honoured with a major retrospective by the Royal Academy of Arts in London.
Coming to terms with German history
Coming to terms, through art, with history, religion, philosophy and mysticism has shaped Kiefer's work. His aim with those self-portraits had been to depict "the unimaginable within myself". The work caused a scandal and was rejected by most professors, whereupon Kiefer continued his study of art with Joseph Beuys in Düsseldorf, who had no doubts about Kiefer's critical attitude. The process of confronting the (German) past stayed with him, however. He painted monumental historical pictures, some of them on huge lead plates, a material that particularly fascinated him. "My biography is the biography of Germany," is a frequently quoted phrase of his.
In 1992 Kiefer moved to France and prescribed himself a three-year break from painting, during which he travelled a lot and devoted himself to writing. After that, his palette became lighter. He turned to cosmic themes and used new materials. Today, the international judgements on him range from 'archaeologist of sorrow' to 'an expert in processing the past'. The London-based art historian Norman Rosenthal writes that Kiefer's art brings together "the terrible and the beautiful sides of his country in grandiose manner".
Anselm Kiefer Retrospective, 27 September to 14 December 2014 at the Royal Academy of Arts in London
