Is there anything more beautiful than flowers gone to seed? Kiefer reminds you that a bloom's "death" is a symbol of renewal too, that there's more than sadness in the image.
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| Anselm Kiefer, Sol Invictus (Unconquered Sun), 1995. Emulsion, acrylic, shellac and sunflower seeds on burlap, 473 × 280 cm. Photo: © Ela Bialkowska, OKNO studio. |
I've seen a few of his works in person but cannot remember where exactly. I've been trying to find the ruined landscape I think I saw decades ago but haven't located it either online or in monographs. Possibly at the AIC, on loan from another museum. I think he's amazing. Born at the end of WWII, he created provocative pieces confronting Germany's atrocities during the war, when the government just wanted everyone to forget. He stirred up some shit. Decay and ruin, but offers something like hope too. Inspired by Paul Celan, Holocaust survivor and poet:
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| Aschenblume (Ash Flower), 2004 – oil, acrylic and emulsion on canvas, 95 5/8 x 100 7/8 inches |
I am alone, I put the ash flower
in the glass of ripened black, sister mouth,
the word you speak lives on before the windows
and silent climbs me, just as I had dreamt.I stand in the full bloom of the faded hour
and save a resin for a bird delayed:
It hears the snowflake on its life-red feather,
the ice-grain in its beak, and gets through winter.
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Für Paul Celan : Aschenblume, 2006. Oil, acyrlic, emulsion, shellac, and books on canvas, 129 9/10 × 299 1/5 × 15 7/10 in | 330 × 760 × 40 cm, Centre Pompidou. |
I think of him along with Paul Klee, another artist who spoke to power.
Incorporating some of the same works, younger sister of Ralph (pr. rāfe) Fiennes, Sophia (pr. sāf wā), made a different kind of doc in 2010. Currently available on kanopy or maybe your library? Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow:
Any artist at whose work you stare intensely, hungrily, with an almost spiritual obsession?
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