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Final Copy 2018 11 06 Wates This electronic thesis or dissertation has been downloaded from Explore Bristol Research, http://research-information.bristol.ac.uk Author: Wates, Matt Title: Disorders at the Borders Memories of the Gesamtkunstwerk in the Paintings of Anselm Kiefer General rights Access to the thesis is subject to the Creative Commons Attribution - NonCommercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International Public License. A copy of this may be found at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode This license sets out your rights and the restrictions that apply to your access to the thesis so it is important you read this before proceeding. Take down policy Some pages of this thesis may have been removed for copyright restrictions prior to having it been deposited in Explore Bristol Research. However, if you have discovered material within the thesis that you consider to be unlawful e.g. breaches of copyright (either yours or that of a third party) or any other law, including but not limited to those relating to patent, trademark, confidentiality, data protection, obscenity, defamation, libel, then please contact [email protected] and include the following information in your message: •Your contact details •Bibliographic details for the item, including a URL •An outline nature of the complaint Your claim will be investigated and, where appropriate, the item in question will be removed from public view as soon as possible. Disorders at the Borders: Memories of the Gesamtkunstwerk in the Paintings of Anselm Kiefer M J Wates A dissertation submitted to the University of Bristol in accordance with the requirements for award of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Arts, March 2018 Abstract In the winter of 2014/15, the Royal Academy in London presented a major Kiefer retrospective, and the artist himself turned 70 in 2015. Furthermore, January 2015 saw the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, and the Holocaust has been a recurring theme in his work. The commencement of this project therefore seemed like a propitious moment to attempt to add to the academic literature concerning this artist, which although fairly extensive nevertheless contains a notable gap, namely the extent to which his practice relates to the discourse of the Wagnerian Gesamtkunstwerk -- even though it has been often invoked in his connection. The aim of my research is therefore to try to theorize this relationship, with specific reference to Kiefer’s painting. I will show that what connects Wagner with Kiefer is an aspiration to borderless-ness, between art and society on the one hand and between the individual arts on the other. I will also show, however, that these are aspects of a single underlying connection, the legacy of the Counter-Enlightenment. My conclusion will be that a case can be made that Kiefer’s work constitutes the continuation into the twenty-first century of principal themes embodied in the Gesamtkunstwerk, but that these same themes are not antithetical to modernism. 2 Author’s declaration I declare that the work in this dissertation was carried out in accordance with the requirements of the University's Regulations and Code of Practice for Research Degree Programmes and that it has not been submitted for any other academic award. Except where indicated by specific reference in the text, the work is the candidate's own work. Work done in collaboration with, or with the assistance of, others, is indicated as such. Any views expressed in the dissertation are those of the author. SIGNED: ............................................................. DATE:.......................... 3 Table of Contents List of Plates ................................................................................................................................. 6 Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 8 Chapter Structure .................................................................................................................... 14 Chapter 1: What was the Gesamtkunstwerk? ......................................................... 18 Enlightenment and its Discontents .................................................................................... 20 An Extended Family ................................................................................................................ 23 The ‘Organic State’ ................................................................................................................... 31 The ‘Living Work of Art’ ......................................................................................................... 40 The Synthesis of the Arts ....................................................................................................... 46 Wagner the Revolutionary ................................................................................................... 51 The ‘Art-Work of the Future’ ................................................................................................ 55 Chapter 2: Anselm Kiefer, History Painter ............................................................. 62 A Public Role for Art ............................................................................................................... 67 The Sins of the Fathers ........................................................................................................... 87 The Year of Protest .................................................................................................................. 94 Political Cleanliness Mania ................................................................................................ 102 A ‘Restored Modernism’ ..................................................................................................... 106 The Soil of Germany ............................................................................................................. 112 Chapter 3: Synthesis, Purity and Synesthesia ..................................................... 130 The Combination of the Arts ............................................................................................. 132 The Confusion of the Arts ................................................................................................... 139 Space becomes Time ............................................................................................................ 151 Synesthesia and the Gesamtsensorischeswerk ............................................................ 159 The ‘Ground of Being’ .......................................................................................................... 164 Time becomes Space ............................................................................................................ 168 Chapter 4: Wagner, Kiefer and Counter-Americanism .................................... 179 The ‘Land of the End’ ........................................................................................................... 180 The Middle Way ..................................................................................................................... 188 ‘Pax Americana’ ..................................................................................................................... 197 Homo Europaeus ................................................................................................................... 203 Kiefer’s Counter-Americanism ......................................................................................... 206 Chapter 5: The Gesamtkunstwerk, Kiefer and ‘Negative Dialectics’ ............ 218 ‘The True is the Whole’ ....................................................................................................... 221 Rationality and Power ........................................................................................................ 230 Contra Adorno ........................................................................................................................ 234 Points of Convergence ......................................................................................................... 241 Negative Dialectics in Kiefer’s Eisensteig ................................................................................. 243 Ways of Thinking ................................................................................................................................ 246 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 252 Plates ................................................................................................................................ 259 Appendix 1: The Leitmotif ......................................................................................... 260 Appendix 2: Die Versmelodie .................................................................................... 263 An Image of the Will ............................................................................................................. 265 Appendix 3: Subject and Object ............................................................................... 268 Appendix 4: Death Fugue ........................................................................................... 271 4 Bibliography of Works Cited .................................................................................... 272 Primary Sources ...................................................................................................................
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