Anselm Kiefer: Heaven And Earth - Hardcover

Auping, Michael

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 3791333879 ISBN 13: 9783791333878

Publisher: Prestel Pub, 2005

Synopsis

A retrospective volume of Anselm Kiefer's work, this book addresses the artist's entire career through the lens of one compelling theme.
From his earliest sculptures to his recent highly textured paintings, Anselm Kiefer has woven themes of heaven and earth into his work, exploring the polarities of these ideas while struggling to define the transcendent quality that places art squarely in between. Destruction and rebirth, glory and shame, sin and redemption all figure largely in Kiefer's often controversial depictions of Germany's physical and cultural landscape. This book of more than fifty reproductions includes Kiefer's first work, The Heavens, as well as numerous other rare early works and recent works being presented for the first time. It features an interview with the artist, which is accompanied by rich black-and-white photographs of his ongoing monumental installations on his property in Barjac, France.

About this title

About the Author:

Michael Auping is Chief Curator of the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas.

From Booklist:

Kiefer is an international art star and a German master of scorched and scummy stuff who deploys a prodigious vision on an enormous scale. Curator Auping presents a superb introduction to Kiefer's work since the 1960s in a book accompanying a widely traveling exhibit that is organized around the artist's philosophical underpinnings. Born in 1945, Kiefer makes art in the wake of World War II that represents a constant struggle between the burdens of history and the quest for spiritual redemption. The viewer must decide whether it's bombast or humble desire that leads him to explore and embrace the universe in paintings and sculpture that attempt to corral science and serpents, angels and sperm, kabbalah and cosmology. Kiefer's world is famously gray, typified by his extensive use of lead as a symbol of ambiguity, alchemy, and human potential. Another recurring theme is the book as icon, vessel, and transformative object. Auping's reverent essay and his Q&A with Kiefer steer clear of personality and stick close to the work. Steve Paul
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About this edition

• Publisher: Prestel Pub
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 3791333879
• ISBN 13: 9783791333878
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 186