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Anselm Kiefer

Installation view, Anselm Kiefer: For Louis-Ferdinand Céline: Voyage au bout de la nuit, Copenhagen Contemporary, Copenhagen, 2017 Artwork © Anselm Kiefer

Installation view, Anselm Kiefer: For Louis-Ferdinand Céline: Voyage au bout de la nuit, Copenhagen Contemporary, Copenhagen, 2017

Artwork © Anselm Kiefer

Anselm Kiefer, Les extases féminines (The Feminine Ecstasies), 2013 Watercolor on paper, 65 ¾ × 60 ⅝ inches (167 × 154 cm)© Anselm Kiefer, photo by Georges Poncet

Anselm Kiefer, Les extases féminines (The Feminine Ecstasies), 2013

Watercolor on paper, 65 ¾ × 60 ⅝ inches (167 × 154 cm)
© Anselm Kiefer, photo by Georges Poncet

Anselm Kiefer, Paul Celan: wir schöpften die Finsternis leer, wir fanden das wort, das den Sommer heraufkam: Blume; (We scooped the darkness empty, we found the word that ascended summer: flower), 2012 Oil, emulsion, acrylic, on photograph on canvas, 110 ¼ × 149 ⅝ inches (280 × 380 cm )© Anselm Kiefer

Anselm Kiefer, Paul Celan: wir schöpften die Finsternis leer, wir fanden das wort, das den Sommer heraufkam: Blume; (We scooped the darkness empty, we found the word that ascended summer: flower), 2012

Oil, emulsion, acrylic, on photograph on canvas, 110 ¼ × 149 ⅝ inches (280 × 380 cm )
© Anselm Kiefer

Anselm Kiefer, Merkaba, 2010 Photograph, acrylic, shellac, ash, cotton dress, burned books, and plaster coated thorn bushes in glass and steel frame, 111 × 120 ⅞ × 13 13/16 inches (282 × 307 × 35 cm)© Anselm Kiefer

Anselm Kiefer, Merkaba, 2010

Photograph, acrylic, shellac, ash, cotton dress, burned books, and plaster coated thorn bushes in glass and steel frame, 111 × 120 ⅞ × 13 13/16 inches (282 × 307 × 35 cm)
© Anselm Kiefer

Anselm Kiefer, Untitled (Berenice), 2003 Painted photograph with hair, 50 × 38 inches (127 × 96.5 cm)© Anselm Kiefer

Anselm Kiefer, Untitled (Berenice), 2003

Painted photograph with hair, 50 × 38 inches (127 × 96.5 cm)
© Anselm Kiefer

About

Anselm Kiefer’s monumental body of work represents a microcosm of collective memory, visually encapsulating a broad range of cultural, literary, and philosophical allusions—from the Old and New Testaments, Kabbalah mysticism, Norse mythology and Wagner’s Ring Cycle to the poetry of Ingeborg Bachmann and Paul Celan.

Born during the closing months of World War II, Kiefer reflects upon Germany’s post-war identity and history, grappling with the national mythology of the Third Reich. Fusing art and literature, painting and sculpture, Kiefer engages the complex events of history and the ancestral epics of life, death, and the cosmos. His boundless repertoire of imagery is paralleled only by the breadth of media palpable in his work.

Kiefer’s oeuvre encompasses paintings, vitrines, installations, artist books, and an array of works on paper such as drawings, watercolors, collages, and altered photographs. The physical elements of his practice—from lead, concrete, and glass to textiles, tree roots, and burned books—are as symbolically resonant as they are vast-ranging. By integrating, expanding, and regenerating imagery and techniques, he brings to light the importance of the sacred and spiritual, myth and memory.

Anselm Kiefer was born in 1945 in Donaueschingen, Germany. After studying law and Romance languages, he attended the School of Fine Arts at Freiburg im Breisgau and the Art Academy in Karlsruhe while maintaining a contact with Joseph Beuys.

Kiefer’s work has been shown and collected by major museums worldwide, including the following: “Bilder und Bücher,” Kunsthalle Bern, Switzerland (1978); “Verbrennen, verholzen, versenken, versanden,” West German Pavilion, 39th Biennale di Venezia, Italy (1980); “Margarete—Sulamith,” Museum Folkwang, Germany (1981); Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Germany (1984, traveled to ARC Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, France; and Israel Museum, Jerusalem); “Peintures 1983–1984,” Musée d’Art Contemporain, Bordeaux (1984); and Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois (1987, traveled to Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; and Museum of Modern Art, New York, through 1989).

Further museum exhibitions include “Bücher 1969–1990,” Kunsthalle Tübingen, Germany (1990, traveled to Kunstverein München, Germany; and Kunsthaus Zürich, Switzerland, through 1991); Neue Nationalgalerie Berlin, Germany (1991); “Melancholia,” Sezon Museum of Art, Tokyo (1993, traveled to Kyoto National Museum of Art, Japan; and Hiroshima Museum of Contemporary Art, Japan); “Himmel-Erde,” Museo Correr, Venice (1997); and “El viento, el tiempo, el silencio,” Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid (1998).

In recent years, Anselm Kiefer’s solo exhibitions have included Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Spain (2000); “Maleri 1998–2000,” Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebkæk, Denmark (2001); “Die sieben Himmelspaläste,“ Fondation Beyeler, Basel (2001); “I sette palazzi celesti,” Fondazione Pirelli, Milan (2004); “Heaven and Earth,” Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas (2005, traveled to Musée d’Art Contemporain de Montréal, Québec; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C.; and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California, through 2007); Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Spain (2007); “Sternenfall / Chute d’étoiles,” Monumenta, Grand Palais, Paris (2007); “Anselm Kiefer au Louvre,” Musée du Louvre, Paris (2007); Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebkæk, Denmark (2010); “Shevirat Hakelim,” Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Israel (2011); “Beyond Landscape,” Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo (2013); Royal Academy of Arts, London (2014); “l’alchimie du livre,” Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris (2015); Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (2015); “Kiefer Rodin,” Musée Rodin, Paris (2017, traveled to the Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia, through 2018); “For Velimir Khlebnikov — Fates of Nations,” State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg (2017); and “Provocations,” The Met Breuer, New York (2017).

Anselm Kiefer

Photo: Peter Rigaud c/o Shotview Syndication

Jerome Rothenberg in a chair

In Conversation
Jerome Rothenberg and Charles Bernstein

Gagosian and Beyond Baroque Literary | Arts Center hosted a conversation between poets Jerome Rothenberg and Charles Bernstein inside Anselm Kiefer’s exhibition Exodus at Gagosian at Marciano Art Foundation, Los Angeles. Rothenberg and Bernstein explored some of the themes that occupy Kiefer—Jewish mysticism, the poetry of Paul Celan, and the formulation of a global poetics in response to the Holocaust—in a discussion and readings of their poetry.

Michael Govan and Anselm Kiefer

In Conversation
Anselm Kiefer and Michael Govan

On the occasion of his exhibition Anselm Kiefer: Exodus at Gagosian at Marciano Art Foundation in Los Angeles, the artist spoke with Michael Govan about his works that elaborate on themes of loss, history, and redemption.

Anna Weyant’s Two Eileens (2022) on the cover of Gagosian Quarterly, Winter 2022

Now available
Gagosian Quarterly Winter 2022

The Winter 2022 issue of Gagosian Quarterly is now available, featuring Anna Weyant’s Two Eileens (2022) on its cover.

Hans Ulrich Obrist’s Questionnaire: Anselm Kiefer

Hans Ulrich Obrist’s Questionnaire: Anselm Kiefer

In this ongoing series, curator Hans Ulrich Obrist has devised a set of thirty-seven questions that invite artists, authors, musicians, and other visionaries to address key elements of their lives and creative practices. Respondents make a selection from the larger questionnaire and reply in as many or as few words as they desire. For the fourth installment, we are honored to present the artist Anselm Kiefer.

Darkly lit road, trees, and building exterior at La Ribaute, Barjac, France.

Anselm Kiefer: Architect of Landscape and Cosmology

Jérôme Sans visits La Ribaute in Barjac, France, the vast studio-estate transformed by Anselm Kiefer over the course of decades. The labyrinthine site, now open to the public, stands as a total work of art, reflecting through its grounds, pavilions, and passageways major themes in Kiefer’s oeuvre: regeneration, mythology, memory, and more. 

Two dress sculptures in the landscape at Barjac

La Ribaute: Transitive, It Transforms

Camille Morineau writes of the triumph of the feminine at Anselm Kiefer’s former studio-estate in Barjac, France, describing the site and its installations as a demonstration of women’s power, a meditation on inversion and permeability, and a reversal of the long invisibility of women in history and myth.

Rainer Maria Rilke, 1928. Photo: Lou Andreas-Salomé

Rainer Maria Rilke: Duino Elegies

Bobbie Sheng explores the symbiotic relationship between the poet and visual artists of his time and tracks the enduring influence of his poetry on artists working today.

ERLEND HØYERSTEN

Mythologies: A Conversation with Erlend Høyersten

Gagosian’s Georges Armaos speaks with the director of ARoS Aarhus Art Museum, Denmark, about the exhibition Mythologies: The Beginning and End of Civilizations, the art of Anselm Kiefer, and the role of museums during times of crisis.

Anselm Kiefer, Volkszählung (Census), 1991, steel, lead, glass, peas, and photographs, 163 ⅜ × 224 ½ × 315 inches (4.1 × 5.7 × 8 m)/

Cast of Characters

James Lawrence explores how contemporary artists have grappled with the subject of the library.

Anselm Kiefer, Maginot, 1977–93.

Veil and Vault

An exhibition at the Broad in Los Angeles prompts James Lawrence to examine how artists give shape and meaning to the passage of time, and how the passage of time shapes our evolving accounts of art.

Uraeus

Uraeus

Richard Calvocoressi speaks with Anselm Kiefer about the range of mythological and historical symbols in the artist’s sculpture Uraeus.

Anselm Kiefer, Uraeus (2017-18), installation view, Rockefeller Center, New York.

Anselm Kiefer: Uraeus

Taking viewers behind the scenes during the installation of Anselm Kiefer’s Uraeus at Channel Gardens, Rockefeller Center®, New York, this video features interviews with Kiefer, Robin Vousden, Nicholas Baume, and Richard Calvocoressi. The speakers detail the conception, installation, and symbolism of this monumental public sculpture.

Fairs, Events & Announcements

Production still for Anselm (2023), directed by Wim Wenders

Screening

Anselm

Tuesday, February 27, 2024, 5pm
UTA, Los Angeles
www.unitedtalent.com

Join Gagosian for a special screening of Anselm (2023), an immersive 3D documentary directed by Wim Wenders, which premiered at Festival de Cannes 2023. For over two years, Wenders traced Anselm Kiefer’s path from his native Germany to his former studio complex in southern France—now part of his foundation, Eschaton—weaving together pivotal moments in the artist’s life and decades-long career. This unique cinematic experience dives deep into Kiefer’s practice and reveals his inspiration and creative process, exploring his fascination with myth and history.

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Production still for Anselm (2023), directed by Wim Wenders

Production still for Anselm (2023), directed by Wim Wenders

New Release

Anselm
Wim Wenders

Anselm (2023), an immersive 3D documentary directed by Wim Wenders, will have its US theatrical release in New York at Film at Lincoln Center and IFC Center on December 8, 2023, and in Los Angeles at AMC Santa Monica 7 and Laemmle Glendale on December 15, 2023. This unique cinematic experience, which premiered at Festival de Cannes earlier this year, dives deep into Anselm Kiefer’s practice and reveals his inspiration and creative process, exploring his fascination with myth and history. For over two years, Wenders traced Kiefer’s path from his native Germany to his former studio complex in southern France—now part of his foundation, Eschaton—weaving together pivotal moments in the artist’s life and decades-long career.

Production still for Anselm (2023), directed by Wim Wenders

Still from Anselm (2023), directed by Wim Wenders

Screening

Anselm

Tuesday, December 5, 2023, 6:30pm
Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo, Rome
www.maxxi.art

Join Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo, Rome, in collaboration with Gagosian, for a special screening of Anselm (2023), an immersive 3D documentary directed by Wim Wenders, which premiered at Festival de Cannes 2023. For over two years, Wenders traced Anselm Kiefer’s path from his native Germany to his former studio complex in southern France—now part of his foundation, Eschaton—weaving together pivotal moments in the artist’s life and decades-long career. This unique cinematic experience dives deep into Kiefer’s practice and reveals his inspiration and creative process, exploring his fascination with myth and history.

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Still from Anselm (2023), directed by Wim Wenders

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Museum Exhibitions

Anselm Kiefer, Engelssturz (Fall of the Angel), 2022–23 © Anselm Kiefer

Opening this Week

Anselm Kiefer
Angeli caduti

March 22–July 21, 2024
Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, Italy
www.palazzostrozzi.org

This exhibition, whose title translates to Fallen Angels, places work by Anselm Kiefer in direct dialogue with the Renaissance architecture of Palazzo Strozzi, and reflects on topics such as identity, history, and philosophy. Featuring over twenty-five works by Kiefer, both historical and recent, it also includes a new work for the museum’s courtyard and an immersive installation made in sixty canvases of various formats.

Anselm Kiefer, Engelssturz (Fall of the Angel), 2022–23 © Anselm Kiefer

Glenn Brown, The Holy Bible, 2022 © Glenn Brown

On View

Dix und die Gegenwart

Through April 1, 2024
Deichtorhallen Hamburg, Germany
www.deichtorhallen.de

This exhibition, whose title translates to Dix and the Present, explores the work of Otto Dix (1891–1969) and the artist’s enduring influence. It focuses on the ostensibly apolitical work Dix created beginning in 1933, which was less aggressive than his radical and provocative paintings of the 1920s. His Nazi-era landscapes, commissioned portraits, and Christian allegories were instead subtle and subversive forms of contemporary social critique. The exhibition aims to reveal the shifting cultural and social parameters in the reception of Dix’s art, while also demonstrating how his oeuvre continues to fascinate more than forty contemporary artists. Work by Georg Baselitz, Glenn Brown, John Currin, Nan Goldin, and Anselm Kiefer is included.

Glenn Brown, The Holy Bible, 2022 © Glenn Brown

Installation view, Anselm Kiefer: La photographie au commencement, Lille Métropole Musée d’art moderne, d’art contemporain et d’art brut, Villeneuve-d’Ascq, France, October 6, 2023–March 3, 2024. Artwork © Anselm Kiefer. Photo: Nicholas Dewitte

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Anselm Kiefer
La photographie au commencement

October 6, 2023–March 3, 2024
Lille Métropole Musée d’art moderne, d’art contemporain et d’art brut, Villeneuve-d’Ascq, France
www.musee-lam.fr

This retrospective, whose title translates to Photography at the Beginningis the first to focus on Anselm Kiefer’s relationship with photography, and features over a hundred works from throughout his career. This underrecognized aspect of his practice has been central to the artist’s work from the late 1960s through the present. The exhibition examines themes and inspirations that have informed Kiefer’s approach over the last fifty years and includes paintings, books, and sculptures that complement the photographic works on display, and demonstrate their integral role within the artist’s oeuvre.

Installation view, Anselm Kiefer: La photographie au commencement, Lille Métropole Musée d’art moderne, d’art contemporain et d’art brut, Villeneuve-d’Ascq, France, October 6, 2023–March 3, 2024. Artwork © Anselm Kiefer. Photo: Nicholas Dewitte

Installation view, Anselm Kiefer: Bilderstreit, Museum Voorlinden, Wassenaar, Netherlands, October 14, 2023–February 25, 2024. Artwork © Anselm Kiefer. Photo: Antoine von Kaam

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Anselm Kiefer
Bilderstreit

October 14, 2023–February 25, 2024
Museum Voorlinden, Wassenaar, Netherlands
www.voorlinden.nl

This exhibition features paintings, sculptures, artist’s books, and installations by Anselm Kiefer, many of which have never been shown before. A close collaboration between the artist and Museum Voorlinden, it highlights the breadth of Kiefer’s interests, including history, mythology, and literature.

Installation view, Anselm Kiefer: Bilderstreit, Museum Voorlinden, Wassenaar, Netherlands, October 14, 2023–February 25, 2024. Artwork © Anselm Kiefer. Photo: Antoine von Kaam

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Press

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