Anselm Kiefer

German · b. 1945

Anselm Kiefer (b. 1945, Donaueschingen) is a German artist whose monumental works explore history, memory, mythology, literature, spirituality, and the legacy of twentieth-century Germany. His practice encompasses painting, sculpture, installation, photography, and artist’s books, often incorporating unconventional materials such as lead, ash, straw, clay, concrete, and gold leaf. Kiefer frequently draws on German history, the poetry of Paul Celan and Ingeborg Bachmann, the Bible, Kabbalah, Norse mythology, and alchemy. Dense surfaces, ruined landscapes, architectural structures, books, sunflowers, and celestial imagery recur throughout his work. Since moving to France in the early 1990s, he has created increasingly large-scale environments that bring painting, sculpture, architecture, and landscape together.