Book Description

Born in the final weeks of World War II--in what Germans who wished to erase it from collective memory called Year Zero--Anselm Kiefer has long sought to come to grips with his country's Nazi past. This monograph traces his development as an artist through four blocks of work which reflect the most important currents in his complex oeuvre. Moving chronologically from microcosm to macrocosm, from the intimate spaces of "Attic Images" in the 70s through the vaster "Stone Halls" of the early 80s and the archaic-looking clay architectures he created in the 90s, Kiefer's pictorial spaces climaxed in the endless universes of "Images of the Cosmos and Constellations," painted at the close of the century. With the monumental "Sunflower Paintings," the progression was complete and he returned to earth. Also included are photographs by Thomas Flechtner which document the greenhouses, underground corridor systems, and installations realized by Kiefer at his studio estate in Barjac since 1993. I think vertically, and Fascism was one vertical plane. Yet I see all these strata. I tell stories in my works in order to show what lies behind the story. I make a hole and I go through it. --Anselm Kiefer
Essay by Markus Bruderlin.
11 x 13 in.
62 color illustrations ... Read more

Reviews (1)

A high-quality gallery book
Anselm Kiefer: The Seven Heavenly Palaces 1973-2001 is a truly impressive volume showcasing Anselm Kiefer's paintings in full color. An essay by Christoph Ransmayr and contributions by three others offer insightful commentary on the period pieces, but the principle focus of Anselm Kiefer: The Seven Heavenly Palaces 1973-2001 is upon the art itself. Enthusiastically recommended for personal, art school, and community library art reference and history collections, Anselm Kiefer: The Seven Heavenly Palaces 1973-2001 is a high-quality gallery book filled with earthy architectural paintings and resounding emotion and spirit. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Writing about one of the most important and complex artists of our times requires the erudition, clarity, and broad view of a Daniel Arasse, author of the gorgeously illustrated Anselm Kiefer. Avoiding a straightforward chronological survey, Arasse plunges directly into Kiefer's major themes and the ways they reflect the artist's subtly evolving perspectives on German history, the role of the artist, and the meaning of life. Arasse illuminates Kiefer's use of Jewish kabbalistic symbolism, his relationship to philosophers and writers from Nietzsche to Celan, and the rich trove of metaphor to be found in his use of lead, straw, books, and images of railroad tracks and artists' palettes. Never succumbing to art-speak, Arasse--whose French text has been deftly translated into English--marshals his arguments with lucid elegance. The approximately 400 full-color plates, including full views and close-ups, are magnificent. This is surely one of the major art books of our time. --Cathy Curtis ... Read more

Reviews (1)

The pictures do the talking
This is a beautiful book which covers some of Kiefer's best work in painting as well as his photo-montage and book making activities. A small and eloquent tribute and forward leave adequate room for many full color reproductions (some double-paged) of paintings, large black and white photos taken by the artist, photos of installations and performances and reproductions of selections from his book makings. The reproductions are bright and clear and attempt to give you an adequate view of the texture and matter that Kiefer paints with. Kiefer is one of the most prodigious and poetic artists of our time. He stands out individually in our present, sometimes cynical art atmosphere in the age of post-modern theory. These are magical paintings that contain deep myth and meaning. A truly beautiful book on beautiful and revealing art that can change your view of the world. ... Read more

Book Description

Born in 1945, the German painter Anselm Kiefer "represents the concerns and insecurities of postwar European intellectuals, confronted by a questionable past and a future so threatening that it tends to create despair." In this philosophical case study of Kiefer’s work, John C. Gilmour addresses a crisis that is common to twentieth-century art and aesthetic theory: the loss of confidence in the ideals and world view inherited from the Enlightenment. Modernism’s historical moment has passed, he claims, and Kiefer’s art—which was the subject of a recent national exhibition—reveals the contours of an emerging postmodern vision.

Considering the writings of Jameson, Foucault, Baudrillard, Lyotard, and Nietzsche, among others, Gilmour shows how Kiefer’s use of literary, mythological, and other cultural texts parallels the intertextual approach common among postmodern theorists. At the same time, the artist’s cosmological questioning adds a dimension lacking among many of postmodernism’s leading proponents. The author interprets Kiefer’s art as a site where distinctions between modern and postmodern senses of representation, history, cosmology, and nature become thematic. He addresses individual paintings—the book includes forty-four illustrations—and gives the historical, biographical, art-critical, and philosophical setting for each piece. ... Read more

Book Description

Anselm Kiefer and Art after Auschwitz examines the legacy of German-Jewish culture in the aftermath of the Holocaust. Positioning Kiefer as a deeply learned artist who encounters and represents history in painted, rather than written form, Lisa Saltzman contends that his work is unique among post-war German artists in his persistent exploration of the legacy of fascism. Formally, thematically, and philosophically, Kiefer's work probes the aesthetic and ethical dilemma of representing the unrepresentable, the historical catastrophe into whose aftermath the artist was born. Kiefer's work mediates the relationship between a deeply traumatic history that he, as a German born after World War II, and his post-Holocaust spectators cannot fully know, but to which his work bears witness and provides access. ... Read more

Book Description

While most major museums in the United States and abroad hold examples of the German artist Anselm Kiefer's work, the nature and extent of his achievement are the subject of intense debate. This volume reproduces in full The Heavenly Palaces: Merkabah, an important large-scale artist's book created by Kiefer in 1990. Featuring highly evocative images beautifully reproduced here in full color, this work is accompanied by three penetrating essays by experts who approach the book from various perspectives, explicating its many layers of meaning to an unprecedented degree.The first essay deals impressionistically with the motifs and iconography of The Heavenly Palaces: Merkabah. The next treats its themes and meaning, concentrating especially on Jewish references and resonances, an especially challenging aspect of this German artist's oeuvre. In the final essay, the importance of the medium of photography is addressed by surveying its use by Kiefer since the beginning of his career. ... Read more

Book Description

According to the Kabbala, the Merkaba and Hechaloth literature deals specifically with the ascent to the seven heavenly palaces or temples, which represent the seven attainments of divine spirituality. Kiefer's spiritual architecture of the heavenly palaces bring the seas and land, heavens and earth back together. His poetry of images unites NASA's cosmological ordering of the stars with the mystical ordering of the ascent. Essay by Harold Bloom.~Foreword by St. John Perse.~Introduction by Ealan Wingate. Hardcover, 10.75 x 12.25 in./120 pgs / 60 color 0 BW13 duotone 0 ~ Item D20138 ... Read more

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Epoca, published by Difusora de Informacion Periodica, S.A. (DINPESA) on July 6, 1998. The length of the article is 501 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: El ltimo Kaiser.(la obra del pintor alemn Anselm Kiefer en Madrid, Espaa)(TT: The last Kaiser.)(TA: the work of German painter Anselm Kiefer in Madrid, Spain)
Publication: Epoca (Magazine/Journal)
Date: July 6, 1998
Publisher: Difusora de Informacion Periodica, S.A. (DINPESA)
Page: 66(1)

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Book Description

This digital document is an article from Shofar, published by University of Nebraska Press on March 22, 2001. The length of the article is 833 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Anselm Kiefer and Art after Auschwitz.(Review) (book review)
Author: Daniel Morris
Publication: Shofar (Refereed)
Date: March 22, 2001
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
Volume: 19Issue: 3Page: 163

Article Type: Book Review

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Book Description

This digital document is an article from Etc. Montreal, published by Revue d'Art Contemporain Etc. Inc. on March 1, 2001. The length of the article is 1676 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: (Anselm Kiefer:) Shebirat kelim: le bris des vases (exposition).
Author: Ludovic Fouquet
Publication: Etc. Montreal (Refereed)
Date: March 1, 2001
Publisher: Revue d'Art Contemporain Etc. Inc.
Issue: 53Page: 56-9

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Book Description

Anselm Kiefer and the Philosophy of Martin Heidegger is a work of cultural history that situates the art works of one of the most important contemporarypainters in relation to the existential, phenomenological and hermeneutic philosophy of Heidegger. Analyzing the development of Kiefer's art in terms of subjectivity, intersubjectivity, history, and technology, Matthew Biro demonstrates that the artist's subjects reflect and transform the philosopher's theoretical interests and intellectual development. The works of Kiefer and Heidegger, Biro argues, present a constellation of issues that unite German art and theory for most of the twentieth century. Showing the aesthetic relevance of the three stages of Heidegger's philosophical thought to Kiefer's work, this book also demonstrates the impact of Kiefer's art works on contemporary art and theory. ... Read more