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Anselm Kiefer

Merkaba

November 8–December 14, 2002
555 West 24th Street, New York

Anselm Kiefer, Merkaba, 2002 Painted photograph with lead, 58 ¼ × 31 ½ inches (148 × 80 cm)Photo: Tom Powel

Anselm Kiefer, Merkaba, 2002

Painted photograph with lead, 58 ¼ × 31 ½ inches (148 × 80 cm)
Photo: Tom Powel

Anselm Kiefer, Oroborus, 2002 Painted photograph, 45 × 30 ¾ inches (114 × 78 cm)Photo: Tom Powel

Anselm Kiefer, Oroborus, 2002

Painted photograph, 45 × 30 ¾ inches (114 × 78 cm)
Photo: Tom Powel

Anselm Kiefer, Sefer Hechaloth, 2002 Oil, emulsion, acrylic, metal shelves and burned books on canvas, 147 ½ × 130 inches (375 × 330 cm)Photo: Tom Powel

Anselm Kiefer, Sefer Hechaloth, 2002

Oil, emulsion, acrylic, metal shelves and burned books on canvas, 147 ½ × 130 inches (375 × 330 cm)
Photo: Tom Powel

Anselm Kiefer, Die Sieben Himmelspaläste, 2002 Oil, emulsion, acrylic, lead objects and steel traps on canvas, 110 × 130 inches (280 × 330 cm)Photo: Tom Powel

Anselm Kiefer, Die Sieben Himmelspaläste, 2002

Oil, emulsion, acrylic, lead objects and steel traps on canvas, 110 × 130 inches (280 × 330 cm)
Photo: Tom Powel

Anselm Kiefer, Die Himmelspaläste, 2002 Oil, emulsion, acrylic and lead objects on lead and canvas, 248 × 212 ½ inches (630 × 540 cm)Photo: Tom Powel

Anselm Kiefer, Die Himmelspaläste, 2002

Oil, emulsion, acrylic and lead objects on lead and canvas, 248 × 212 ½ inches (630 × 540 cm)
Photo: Tom Powel

Anselm Kiefer, Merkaba, 2002 Oil, emulsion, acrylic and lead objects on canvas, 110 × 149 ½ inches (280 × 380 cm)Photo: Tom Powel

Anselm Kiefer, Merkaba, 2002

Oil, emulsion, acrylic and lead objects on canvas, 110 × 149 ½ inches (280 × 380 cm)
Photo: Tom Powel

About

Gagosian is pleased to present an exhibition of new works by Anselm Kiefer. Merkaba, the third exhibition of Kiefer’s work to be presented by the gallery, consists of eight large-scale paintings and two monumental sculptures made of concrete and steel. The works are inspired by Kabbalist literature dealing primarily with the afterlife.

The Merkaba and Hechaloth literature, as discussed in the Kabbalah texts, deal specifically with the ascent up to seven heavenly palaces or temples, which represent the seven attainments of divine spirituality. For Kiefer, the Merkaba, or mystical chariot used for this passage, is not the vehicle toward a single apocalyptic Judgment Day but rather a means to proceed with the ongoing process of working at art.

Kiefer’s spiritual architecture of the heavenly palaces brings the seas and land, the heavens and earth back together. His poetry of images unites NASA’s cosmological ordering of the stars with the mystical order of ascent to the Palaces of Heaven.

A fully illustrated catalogue including an essay by Harold Bloom will accompany the exhibition.

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.