Anselm Kiefer

Anselm Kiefer reflects upon Germany’s post-war identity and history in his rich and monumental body of work that fuses art, literature, painting and sculpture. He works with a wide range of materials, including photographs, coal, tar, lead, sand, and dried plants, as well as woodcut; a technique with a long and distinguished history in German art.

In Extases Féminines (Female Ecstasy) Kiefer depicts a nude woman, lying down in a forest. The combination of a female nude and landscape is typical of his erotic depictions, often rendered in watercolour. In Extases Féminines the woman’s legs and arms are up and crossed, suggesting that she is in a sexual position. Just below the figure, Kiefer has titled the work “Therese of Avila”, referring to Saint Teresa’s ecstasy, famously depicted by Bernini. The perspective of the landscape draws the eye to the centre – a movement that expresses a sense of arousal, and at the centre, between the trees, a tower rises in a phallic manner. The veins and grains of the wood add movement, also enhancing the erotic charge of the scene.

Recent solo exhibitions have included Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Spain (2007); Sternenfall / Chute d’étoiles, Monumenta, Grand Palais, Paris (2007); Anselm Kiefer au Louvre, Musée du Louvre, Paris (2007); Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebkæk, Denmark (2010); Shevirat Hakelim, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Israel (2011); Beyond Landscape, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo (2013); Royal Academy of Arts, London (2014); L’alchimie du livre, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris (2015); Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (2015); Anselm Kiefer, The Woodcuts, Albertina Museum, Vienna (2016) ; Kiefer Rodin, Musée Rodin / Barnes Foundation, Paris / Philadelphia (2017/18); For Velimir Khlebnikov — Fates of Nations, State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg (2017), Provocations, Met Breuer, New York (2018). An exhibition about Anselm Kiefer and literature is due to open at Fondation Jan Michalski, Montricher, Switzerland, in the spring of 2019.