Anselm Kiefer: Heaven and Earth
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMoMA)
San Francisco, CA
20 October 2006 – 21 January 2007

review by Tonya Warner

“All stories of heaven begin on earth”
-Anselm Kiefer

Born only months before the end of World War II, German painter and sculptor Anselm Kiefer became a true artistic voice of the postwar era, his work constantly drawing from his culture’s lingering sense of social trauma. In this vein, he addresses questions of national identity, meta-narratives, heroic figures, ethics, and the possibilities of redemption. Kiefer’s sobering paintings from 1969 to 1993, which deal mostly with these issues, provided a catharsis for his own culture by meeting the wounds of past atrocity and loss head-on during an age where repression was the coping mechanism of choice.

He is well known for his large, stark canvases whose limited palettes are drawn from the inclusion of materials such as straw, ash, clay, and lead. These paintings prove to be quite humbling in their sheer size and physical presence, in a way reminding one that the world (both physical and social) is much bigger than oneself. Perhaps the most important aspect of this exhibition at the SFMoMA is that these are works of art which cannot be reproduced in photographs while maintaining any semblance of the power of seeing them in person. The best way of describing an encounter with the works on display is an initial visceral impact leading (presumably) to a more intellectual and spiritual pondering. As most of Kiefer’s more powerful works deal with not only the horrors of war, but the effects that such horrors have on the societies involved – possessing a lasting emotional impact that still resonates today – we are readily reminded of the past, which is sometimes necessary in lieu of our current global situation.

Standing in front of Kiefer’s heavy-handed canvases, the importance of the individual seems to melt away in the undulating and scarred surface, where there is never a comfortable spot to rest the eyes. Throughout his work there is an emphasis on process, that of building and destroying various layers with a host of materials. It is indeed all too easy to become lost in the details of the surface components, whose examination is itself an almost spiritual experience.

Spirituality, the mystical and theological, are also central themes in Kiefer’s work – ones which are linked to his historical concerns through myth and the potential for rebirth. For some of these works, the process of making them seems itself a form of transcendental meditation – take, for example, “Quaternität” (Quaternity) (1973), the majority of which consists of the meticulous repetition of painted wood grain planks. The title refers to the four-fold paradigm of consciousness believed in across a range of both esoteric and scientific disciplines. This reference superficially seems integral to Kiefer’s work, however, he rarely employs “lighter” elements of water and air, preferring instead to focus on earth, fire, wood, and metal, as seen here with spurts of flame emerging from the wood-paneled room (a reference to an attic in which he once worked).

Loathe as I am to employ iconography in this day and age, it is unavoidable in a discussion of Kiefer’s work – so much so that the SFMoMA on their website list and try to illuminate the major recurring elements found in the works on show: fire (connectiveness – between life/death, earth/heaven), lead (ambiguity – being both and neither), earth (the presence of humanity), plants (the past traces of life), palettes (the artistic process), and the cosmos (a desire for comprehension). The only one they leave out is books – which is especially curious considering his sculpture of a lead book with large delicately elaborate wings (“Buch mit Flügeln”, ‘Book with Wings’, 1992-4) is their chosen advertising image; by extension of what has already been “explained” one would infer that this is meant to reference the human quest for knowledge and information. Although these are very generalized readings, they do aid in beginning to unpack Kiefer’s often dense works, steeped as they are in history and somewhat archaic beliefs.

These works, both linked to a specific context and yet able to be read universally, foil a reliance on aesthetics with both their process-based physicality and symbolism. This is found especially in his more “cosmic” works – ones that reference experience beyond the material confines of man. The focus here shifts from surface to imagery, though without sacrificing the sense of built-up layers. The cosmic watercolours from the 1970s included in this exhibit appear startling in their use of vibrant colours and simplified presentation of spiritual concepts, providing a nice counterpoint to the more heavily moralistic canvases that address German history. Kiefer’s most notable cosmically based painting in the exhibition, “Sternenfall” (Falling Stars) of 1995, shows the artist, naked from the waist up, lying on his back upon a heavily scarred ground - reminiscent of earlier works - gazing at a star-saturated sky; from his eye extends a line (of sight) into the cosmos, this connecting heaven and earth, man and the universe in a rather quiet, personal, and yet undeniably universal way.

Throughout his work, Kiefer seems quite conscious of the role of the art object and his role as artist, as spokesperson for the larger hopes and dreams of humanity. In one of the video clips found, again, on the SFMoMA website, he ruminates on his interest in the urge to extend one’s presence on the earth, as part of an attempt to make sense of the world and other such seemingly universal desires. The title of this exhibition, then, is a fitting connexion not just between Kiefer’s early and more recent works, but his concern with how one identifies with both one’s immediate surroundings and with a larger spiritual realm. Whether this exhibition aims to represent or foster such grand, introspective questions remains to be seen, however, it is doubtless that one can walk out of this show without his/her chest feeling just a little heavier or their thoughts a little more ponderous.

http://www.sfmoma.org/exhibitions/exhib_detail.asp?id=234
http://www.sfmoma.org/kiefer/index.html

Klaus wrote:
Is it possible to talk about Kiefer’s work without sounding like a grand asshole? I mean, the terminology, the discussions about symbolism and spiritual transcendence, isn’t it all just a bit of intellectual wankery?