Aselm Kiefer

I was with an artist friend of mine visiting from India last week at the Modern art museum in Fort Worth Texas. We stood in front of a painting in awe, called 'Golden Calf' by the German artist Anselm Kiefer. On Oct 4th 2006 was when I had visited 'modern' the last time, for the show called "Heaven & Earth" of Kiefer. There were more than 30 works in that show, including many large paintings & installations. First thing that hits us is the stark and raw nature of the surface of the works. They are huge frames (some 're more than 30 feet ) with heavy texture. I talked to the curator and he said it took one month to install the whole show. Earlier works leave a bad taste of war and death in our mouth. Nazi killings during the 2nd war is his basic premise. But he moves to old testament, German nomadic myths, conceptual presentations of existential anguish in general and beyond. The discourse goes on into deeper layers of the starry nights and the universe. Kiefer uses tar for black and for other forms & colors; oils, acrylic, gold leaf, led etc. Latest works are constellations with black backdrop. Names of each nebula and cluster of stars are marked in detail on paper and glued to the surface. He recreates the universe. The epic air the works emulate is definitely beyond words. It demands a trained eye to fully enter into his world, as he is not one of those 'pretty picture makers'. His compositions follow the basic rule of objective approach of a single perspective (like in a photo) then he builds upon it by applying heavy texture with polymer and anything natural or synthetic to achieve a subjective and abstract quality to the surface. This adds the works an interesting vibrancy and mystery to them. Still the basic image is retained. We will look at them for a long time. Installation of large ledger-like books with hinges on their spine is made with led sheets as pages. Led is a harmful metal which has the history of anti-human usage in war a lot. Here medium itself becomes the content. There is no doubt that Kiefer is a monumental image maker and a living legend. He now lives in France.

“I’m interested in reconstructing symbols. It’s about connecting with an older knowledge and trying to discover continuities in why we search for heaven.” Anselm Kiefer


detail of the texture