Anselm Kiefer: Fallen Angels

The image of the "fallen angels" becomes the starting point of the exhibition. In the exhibition path, painting, sculpture, installation, and photography intertwine, accompanying the visitor through a powerful fusion of references, images, and quotations ranging from ancient history to World War II, from classical philosophy to modern literature. The protagonist is always a profound reflection on human nature, its conflicts, contradictions, and potentials.

With the bold use of different techniques, Kiefer creates imposing and evocative works thanks to their strong physical and tactile presence, establishing an immediate and authentic connection with the viewer. Seeds, plants, lead, metals, and gold leaf are combined with phrases and texts, creating dense layers that reveal ever new details and meanings. Words, figures, and different materials merge, evoking a strongly poetic dimension and a deep sensory attraction in the observer, called to engage space and time, thought, and emotion.

Anselm Kiefer
Born in 1945 in Donaueschingen, Germany, Anselm Kiefer is one of the most important and versatile artists today. His artistic practice embraces various media, including painting, sculpture, photography, woodcut, artist's books, installations, and architecture.

Kiefer studied law and Romance languages before dedicating himself to art studies at the academies of Freiburg and Karlsruhe. As a young artist, he came into contact with Joseph Beuys and participated in his action Save the Woods in 1971.

With his early works, he addressed the history of the Third Reich and confronted the post-war identity of Germany as a means to break the silence on the recent past. Through the parody of the Nazi salute or the visual citation and deconstruction of Nazi architecture and Germanic myths, Kiefer explored his own identity and culture.

From 1971 until his move to France in 1992, Kiefer worked in the Odenwald, Germany. During this period, he began to incorporate into his work materials and techniques that are now emblematic, such as lead, straw, plants, fabrics, and woodcuts, along with themes like Wagner's Ring of the Nibelung, the poetry of Paul Celan and Ingeborg Bachmann, as well as biblical references and Jewish mysticism.

The artist gained international attention when, together with Georg Baselitz, he represented West Germany at the 39th Venice Biennale in 1980.

The mid-1990s mark a change in his work; long trips to India, Asia, America, and North Africa inspired an interest in the exchange of thought between the Eastern and Western worlds, and structures reminiscent of Mesopotamian architecture entered his work. There are evident hints of landscapes in southern France, with depictions of constellations or the inclusion of sunflower plants and seeds.

Kiefer, an avid reader, enriches his works with layered literary and poetic references. These associations are not necessarily fixed or literal but overlap in an interconnected fabric of meanings, and the interest in books, both as text and object, reverberates in his work. From the beginning of his career, artist's books have constituted a significant part of his production.

In addition to creating paintings, sculptures, books, and photographs, Anselm Kiefer has intervened in various places. After transforming an old brick factory in Höpfingen, Germany, into a studio, he created installations and sculptures that became part of the place itself. Several years after his move to Barjac, France, Kiefer again transformed the property around his studio by digging to create a network of underground tunnels and crypts connected to art installations.

The studio is now part of the Eschaton-Anselm Kiefer Foundation, open to the public regularly. The establishment of the foundation in 2022 coincided with Kiefer's return to Venice where, parallel to the Biennale, he inserted a series of paintings inspired by the writings of the Italian philosopher Andrea Emo into the Palazzo Ducale.

Anselm Kiefer currently works and lives near Paris.