Lot Essay
Anselm Kiefer was born just before the end of World War II in southern Germany. "The postwar scorched earth and ruined cities, which feature so strongly in his paintings, were a profound aspect of his childhood years" (N. Rosenthal, "Expanding the Possibilities for Painting: Baselitz, Polke, Kiefer," Affinities and Intuitions: The Gerald S. Elliott Collection of Contemporary Art, Chicago 1990, p. 152). For this reason, Kiefer's paintings are deeply personal and resonate with his conviction that life and art are possible and relevant in a damaged post-World War II world.
In his monumental triptych, Untitled, Kiefer addresses three major themes which recur throughout his oeuvre: the relationship between art and nature, the relationship between mythology and history, and the possibility for the rebirth of German culture through the metaphor of alchemy. Norman Rosenthal states:
[The Triptych] seems hardly to have been made by the artist himself, but rather to be an occurrence in nature. The boulders on the left hand panel look as though they have fallen from the skies; they belong there not because the artist has chosen their position but because this is how they are situated within the cosmos...[the triptych] seems to evoke a three-dimnesional world that exists either before or after man. At the bottom of the central panel lies a serpent. Mark Rosenthal has described Kiefer's deliberate use of ambiguity in the image, 'Is it the seraphic angel, having just descended the ladder from heaven, or the Satanic creature writhing at the foot of the ladder used in Christ's crucifixion?' (ibid).
Kiefer's painting bursts with apocalyptic imagery; raging rivers, explosions, and the raining down of earthly matter. His dense, earthy materials and palette, while mirroring the weight and permanence of the Holocaust, are also a metaphor for the rebirth and the cycle of life; optimistic in a depiction of an alchemic cycle. Pours of lead seem to flow through the funnel on the right of the painting to begin some sort of process of purifying transmutation. The imagery sweeps around in a circle, presumably bringing the transmuted lead to the boulders on the opposite side of the painting. The alchemist:
believes that stones came from heaven and are therefore to be venerated; indeed in speaking about the rock in [another painting], Kiefer reported that it had just landed, as if, like the angels, it had been dispatched from heaven (M. Rosenthal, Anselm Kiefer, Chicago and Philadelphia 1987, p. 137).
In his monumental triptych, Untitled, Kiefer addresses three major themes which recur throughout his oeuvre: the relationship between art and nature, the relationship between mythology and history, and the possibility for the rebirth of German culture through the metaphor of alchemy. Norman Rosenthal states:
[The Triptych] seems hardly to have been made by the artist himself, but rather to be an occurrence in nature. The boulders on the left hand panel look as though they have fallen from the skies; they belong there not because the artist has chosen their position but because this is how they are situated within the cosmos...[the triptych] seems to evoke a three-dimnesional world that exists either before or after man. At the bottom of the central panel lies a serpent. Mark Rosenthal has described Kiefer's deliberate use of ambiguity in the image, 'Is it the seraphic angel, having just descended the ladder from heaven, or the Satanic creature writhing at the foot of the ladder used in Christ's crucifixion?' (ibid).
Kiefer's painting bursts with apocalyptic imagery; raging rivers, explosions, and the raining down of earthly matter. His dense, earthy materials and palette, while mirroring the weight and permanence of the Holocaust, are also a metaphor for the rebirth and the cycle of life; optimistic in a depiction of an alchemic cycle. Pours of lead seem to flow through the funnel on the right of the painting to begin some sort of process of purifying transmutation. The imagery sweeps around in a circle, presumably bringing the transmuted lead to the boulders on the opposite side of the painting. The alchemist:
believes that stones came from heaven and are therefore to be venerated; indeed in speaking about the rock in [another painting], Kiefer reported that it had just landed, as if, like the angels, it had been dispatched from heaven (M. Rosenthal, Anselm Kiefer, Chicago and Philadelphia 1987, p. 137).