Works Exhibited
About
These sunflowers are black like the firmament.
—Anselm Kiefer
Gagosian is pleased to announce For Robert Fludd, a presentation of previously unexhibited photographs by Anselm Kiefer at 9 rue de Castiglione, Paris.
Photography is an underrecognized aspect of Kiefer’s art that has played a central role in his practice from the 1960s through the present. Gagosian’s exhibition complements Anselm Kiefer: La photographie au commencement (Anselm Kiefer: Photography at the Beginning), organized by the Lille Métropole Musée d’art moderne, d’art contemporain et d’art brut (LaM). The first retrospective to focus on the artist’s relationship with photography, LaM’s exhibition features over a hundred works from throughout his career and will be on view October 6, 2023–March 3, 2024.
For Robert Fludd features steel-framed, black-and-white photographs of sunflowers by Kiefer from his series Les Fleurs du Mal (The Flowers of Evil, 1994–2012), which was titled after Charles Baudelaire’s famed collection of Symbolist poetry. Following artists including Emil Nolde and especially Vincent van Gogh, Kiefer has been drawn repeatedly to the sunflower as a symbol of metamorphosis and regeneration. The exhibition’s dedication to the early modern cosmologist Robert Fludd refers to the connections that Fludd drew between the microcosmic and the macrocosmic, and his belief that every plant on earth has a corresponding star in the sky.
The dynamic Les Fleurs du Mal works pair positive, negative, and solarized images of the flowers’ arcing stalks, vigorous leaves, and expansive heads with abstract splatters of photographic emulsion and tinting that echo their imposing vitality and suggest constant cosmic transformation. Jericho (2010–15), a photograph of one of Kiefer’s series of monumental Die Himmelspaläste (2003–18) sculptures at La Ribaute, his former studio complex in Barjac, France—now part of his foundation, Eschaton—reinforces the dual themes of growth and destruction.
Ces tournesols sont noirs comme le firmament.
—Anselm Kiefer
Gagosian a le plaisir d’annoncer For Robert Fludd, une présentation de photographies inédites d’Anselm Kiefer au 9 rue de Castiglione à Paris.
La photographie est un aspect méconnu de l’art de Kiefer qui a joué un rôle central dans sa pratique depuis les années soixante jusqu’à aujourd’hui. L’exposition chez Gagosian vient compléter Anselm Kiefer: La photographie au commencement, organisée par le Lille Métropole Musée d’art moderne, d’art contemporain et d’art brut (LaM). Première rétrospective consacrée à la relation de l’artiste avec la photographie, l’exposition du LaM présente plus d’une centaine d’œuvres parcourant toute la carrière de l’artiste et sera visible du 6 octobre 2023 au 3 mars 2024.
For Robert Fludd présente des photographies de tournesols en noir et blanc, comprenant un cadre en acier ; réalisées par Kiefer et issues de sa série Les Fleurs du Mal (1994–2012), appelée ainsi d’après le célèbre recueil de poésie symboliste de Charles Baudelaire. S’inspirant d’artistes tels qu’Emil Nolde et plus particulièrement Vincent van Gogh, Kiefer a été attiré à maintes reprises par le tournesol, symbole de métamorphose et de régénération. L’exposition est dédiée au cosmologiste de l’époque moderne Robert Fludd et fait référence aux liens que Fludd a établis entre le microcosme et le macrocosme, ainsi qu’à la croyance que chaque plante sur terre a une étoile qui lui correspond dans le ciel.
Les compositions dynamiques des œuvres Les Fleurs du Mal associent des images positives, négatives et solarisées des fleurs ; des tiges arquées, des feuilles vigoureuses et des têtes expansives ; à des éclaboussures abstraites d’émulsion photographique et de teinture qui font écho à leur vitalité imposante et suggèrent une transformation cosmique constante. Jericho (2010–15), une photographie d’une de ses séries de sculptures monumentales, Die Himmelspaläste (2003–18), situées à La Ribaute, son ancien atelier-résidence à Barjac en France—désormais intégré à sa fondation, Eschaton—renforce le thème double de la croissance et de la destruction.
Presse
Gagosian
press@gagosian.com
Toby Kidd
tkidd@gagosian.com
+44 20 7495 1500
Karla Otto
Ottavia Palomba
ottavia.palomba@karlaotto.com
+33 1 42 61 34 36
#AnselmKiefer
Artist
Press
Gagosian
press@gagosian.com
Toby Kidd
tkidd@gagosian.com
+44 20 7495 1500
Karla Otto
Ottavia Palomba
ottavia.palomba@karlaotto.com
+33 1 42 61 34 36
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
