About
ncartmuseum.org

Artist

Anselm Kiefer

Nationality
German
Birth/Death
1945-

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Seeing Clearly: How does the transformation of a place over time also transform the people who live there?

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Ready-to-Go Resources: Seeing Clearly for Grades 9-12

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Artwork by Anselm Kiefer
Work of Art
Untitled

About

A German born in the last months of World War II, Anselm Kiefer grew up in the ashes of the Third Reich. Among his earliest memories were bombed-out cities and scorched fields, indelible images the artist wouldlater recycle in his work. Though Kiefer in his art frequently addresses historical themes, including the Nazi era, he neither commemorates nor illustrates. Rather, he employs history and mythology (another form of memory) together with science, literature, and philosophy in a sustained meditation upon time, existence, and the tragic course of human events.

From Wikipedia

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Anselm Kiefer (born 8 March 1945) is a German painter and sculptor. He studied with Peter Dreher and Horst Antes at the end of the 1960s. His works incorporate materials such as straw, ash, clay, lead, and shellac. The poems of Paul Celan have played a role in developing Kiefer's themes of German history and the horrors of the Holocaust, as have the spiritual concepts of Kabbalah. When he was 18, Kiefer set out on a year-long tour to visit places in The Netherlands, Belgium and France which had associations with Van Gogh. Excerpts from the diary that he kept indicate how strongly he was influenced by Van Gogh. In his entire body of work, Kiefer argues with the past and addresses taboo and controversial issues from recent history. Themes from Nazi rule are particularly reflected in his work; for instance, the painting Margarete (oil and straw on canvas) was…