Anselm Kiefer - Why you need to know this guy!

Anselm Kiefer - You don`t need to know the biography of every artist that you encounter in order to understand their work, but Kiefer didn`t have your average life. Born at the end of world war II (1945) in Germany Kiefer has spent most of his artistic life talking about German culture which was lost during the rule of the Third Reich. Through his photography, his sculpture and his painting you can feel the profound sorrow of Kiefer. Now jumping straight into the art.



The stats on this painting`:

Osiris und Isis (Osiris and Isis)

1985-1987

painting | oil and acrylic emulsion with additional three-dimensional media

Source: http://www.sfmoma.org/explore/collection/artwork/171#ixzz2OwFUONx5
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

Lets talk. So what does a massive pyramid have to do with post war Germany? The tale of Osiris and Isis, is that they were husband and wife Egyptian Gods. Osiris, God of the underworld, was brutally murdered by his brother set, after which his wife Isis went about gathering all of his scattered remains to resurrect him. This story parallels the tale of Germany, the nation. its customs, its history, metaphorically shredded and scattered, and then at the end of the war, the hopeful but distraught must gather the remnants and cobble their beloved memories together again. Imagine the pain of Isis, as she searched for what was left of her husband.

The painting itself is absolutely massive, 3.8m by 5.6m in size. The formal elements are huge, overwhelming even. Looking at the dark tumultuous sky we feel despair and foreboding, the task at hand seeming impossible. How does one go about repairing a pyramid, the base missing huge chunks, the top being so far away. The thick layers of paint create such a strong pull, such a essence of the third dimension, we understand the task is not easy. The embedded objects add to the sense of decay, as though they have fallen off the canvas and out towards us. The loose quality of his strokes give the feeling that at any moment it could all come crumbling down.

A pyramid fallen into such as state also represents the absence of a powerful leader. The emptiness and loss that comes from having one's ruler, destroyed and discredited. Good or bad,  having someone you can follow taken from you, or to feel that your trust and loyalty was for naught, is an overwhelming heartache.

This is another painting I love. It is very reminiscent of his photography.

Anselm Kiefer’s Der Wolken heitere Stimmung (2011). Oil, emulsion, acrylic, shellac and lead on canvas

Kiefer paints a number of these burnt field paintings. Is very hard to see a farm burnt down to such and extent, the field once full of life and bounty reduced to charred remains. You feel death. Something about the huge size of these paintings is that they begin to look all the more real. The painting envelops you in the space. You are the one standing in the field. The viewer questions, who is responsible, looking at the miles and miles just meaninglessly destroyed. Even covered in snow, we see the white spray over heard like a reminder of the smoke that once hung over the field. It just makes one feel so hollow. With Kiefer, we really get that less real is more real, the way he uses paint make my heart want to cry out for the injustice of it all. The lack of detail seems to be what gives the scene more credibility.

Now the stethoscope. An odd addition one might think; however we find it talks a lot on the subject of death. Any farmer would say that the land and its produce is the heart of a nation. Its natural beauty which is so integral to the lives of its citizens. If one is to consider the importance of a pulse, the steady rhythmic beating that keeps the blood flowing; what if someone was to come in and tear down the natural order of things, to cut off the pulse of life. How is the land to replenish itself and its people then. The burnt farm is which symbolizes hope and life, is the nation personified, in my opinion the stethoscope makes this clear.

That`s all for now. I hope you all go out and look up some more of Kiefer`s works. He certainly deserves more space than this. Happy Artings - Frances

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Debut of the Art Talk Blog

Hello to all who have seen www.francesrush.com and to those who have not. The difference between this blog and my website is that it will feature other artists, and only occasionally talk about my work. I want to share all that I have gained in my artistic education from discussing art history, artistic methods, to contemporary artists both known and unknown. I also want to help broaden the scope of the online artist connoisseur as I become increasingly aware of the fact that people looking for good art online don't find it. Instead they are flooded with kitsch cat drawings, anime doodles, and over wrought portrait pencil drawings. Not to say that these don't have value as technical studies, hey I do a portrait in pencil now and then to keep my hands and eyes sharp, but they simply are not the best stuff out their that the art world has to offer. There is art out there, that is mind blowing, technically stunning, thought provoking, and hits you somewhere deep deep inside, its gut wrenching.

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