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ANSELM KIEFER UNTIL 22/08/21 PROGRAM LEVEL WWW.KUMA.ART/ANGEBOTE WWW.KUMA.ART/ANGEBOTE at: found be can show the with conjunction in program entire The art. of Kiefer’s context intercultural the on light sheds Kunsthalle in the Mannheim, among others, Jewish the tion with Community coopera- in lectures several In an program. extensive supporting The exhibition is accompanied by LUXX ENTRANCE HECTOR-BAU EXHIBITION ATRIUM DATES AND SPECIALS AT: SPECIALS AND DATES WWW.KUMA.ART guided tours and artist’s talks. talks. artist’s and tours guided by readings, attending concerts, to engage with Kiefer’s oeuvre also haveVisitors opportunity the Kiefer’s Art” in spring of 2021. of spring in Art” Kiefer’s and“Concepts Material in Anselm ting program is the symposium suppor- the of highlights the of One PASSAGE JUGENDSTIL- BAU CENSUS (LEVIATHAN) CUBE CUBE 5 SATURN TIME THE GREAT GREAT THE ROOM 1 MUTATULI HA KELIM HA SHEBIRAT MULLEIN LILITH CARGO CUBE CUBE 6 CUBE CUBE 7 ANTIQUITY ANTIQUITY BEGINNING ROOM 2 SOLITUDE WOMEN OF OF WOMEN SEPHIROT 20 YEARS YEARS 20 IN THE THE IN OF OF JAIPUR THE FERTILETHE CRESCENT LETTER LOST LOST THE THE CONCLUSUS ROOM 3 HORTUS HORTUS FLAKES SUNDAY BLACK BLACK PALM PALM LEVEL

Anselm Kiefer is one of the most fa- change in direction of the Cold War and sculptures result in either The exhibition displaying large- mous contemporary German artists. and the demise of the Soviet Union, entirely abstract or figurative com- format, multidimensional pictures In his work which is characterized Kiefer turns against the “end of positions. Kiefer’s works are con- and sculptures focuses on three by heavy materiality, he engages history” and literally incorporates the temporary history that important work phases, from early with existential issues. Politics, reli- cultural memory of the world in his critically reflect upon history, while pieces such as The Great Cargo gion, , myths, alchemy, work. His break with and their emotional effects simulta- (1981/1996) with attached lead ob-

INTRODUCTION and cosmology are sets of themes long journeys around the world mark neously tell stories. As a key mate- jects, to the multipart installation from which Anselm Kiefer creates a profound change in his artistic rial, Kiefer uses lead, for example, Palm Sunday (2007) centered around his paintings and sculptures. In four work. Since moving to France in 1993, to clad his picture supports and a palm tree, to the expansive sculp- rooms on two floors, the exhibition the artist has increasingly engaged to construct and attach models of ture The Lost Letter (2011–2017). brings together key groups of works with the connection between Jewish airplanes or ships. produced over the past 30 years and Christian religion, the myths Curator: Dr. Sebastian Baden based on loans from the Kiefer Col- and mystical teachings of world cul- Curatorial assistance: Antonella B. lection Grothe. tures and the media of remembrance. Meloni

In regard to their dimensions, modes In addition to oil and acrylic, Kiefer of depiction and haptic qualities, typically uses organic materials Anselm Kiefer’s mostly large-format such as clay, ash, plaster, and plants works are meant to overwhelm the like sunflowers, ferns, tulips, or *1945 1987 MoMA, NYC viewer. Right after graduating from roses, as well as stuffed animals. He 1965 studies of law, Romance philo- 1990 , Berlin the Kunstakademie in , furthermore uses lead, concrete, logy and linguistics at the Universität 2008 Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, the artist became known for aggres- wire, steel, glass, and found objects, commissioned work for the , sively addressing the taboos of such as historical tools and devices. 1966–70 studies at the Kunstakade- Paris

the German post-war period in his art The artist regularly inserts into mie Karlsruhe with and ANSELMBIOGRAPHY KIEFER and showing the emotional turmoil his pictures, books and installations . Friendship with Joseph Awards of cultural identity in the face of the at times gigantic black-and-white Beuys 1990 Kaiserring Gosslar and Art Prize entanglement in historical guilt. photos which he shoots himself and 1971 work in the Odenwald, from of the Wolf Foundation, Jerusalem With his performance “Besatzungen” develops in his studio. 1988 in his studio in Höpfingen 1999 of the which was documented in photos, 1993 move to Barjac/Frankreich Japan Art Association the artist critically marked the terrain Anselm Kiefer often exposes his art- 2007 move to Paris 2008 Peace Prize of the German Book of the international presence of works produced in elaborate work Trade fascism in Europe. Since then, coming processes to the elemental forces of International exhibitions (selection) 2010 Professor at the Collège de to terms with German history – wind, water and fire – or even to 1978 Kunsthalle Bern France, Paris from Germanic myths to coping with electrolysis – so that the patina of 1980 at the Venice 2011 Leo-Baeck-Medal for German- the National Socialist dictatorship – nature becomes visible on the Biennale (with ) Jewish Reconciliation, NYC has played a pivotal role in Kiefer’s surfaces. The objects and materials 1984 Musée d’Art moderne de la Ville 2019 Prize for Understanding and work. Concurrently with the political joined together in his paintings de Paris and Israel Museum, Jerusalem Tolerance, SHEBIRAT HA KELIM, 1990 0 / ROOM 1 LEVEL

On display in the atrium of the Kunst- according to Luria, a “shattering of But the theme is specific to the tradi- halle is the vertical-format work vessels” (Shevirat HaKeilim) occurred, tional “shattering of vessels,” sym- Sephirot which is characterized by gray so that the origin of the world was bolized by the shards of destruction. and earthy-brown wave reliefs made of shaped from the onset by a dishar- The crucial connection between lead plates. Kiefer created Sephirot mony demanding harmony. The path to writing and tradition as media of cul- along with several identical formats of harmony and thus to spiritual wis- tural memory comes to bear in this the Shevirat Ha Kelim cycle for an dom is structured by the ten vessels, work. A linen garment is applied to the exhibition in the chapel of the former which are simultaneously stations picture assembled from lead plates, Parisian psychiatric clinic “Hôpital of knowledge in the depiction of the its ten pockets filled with glass shards. de la Salpêtrière” where he set up a Tree of Life. Humans, understood The broken glass symbolizes the multipart installation. For this reason, as these vessels, are on the search for light of God emanated during the pro-

ATRIUM 2000 SEPHIROT, the shape of the work conforms not wisdom and the reinstatement of cess of Creation. To create the only to the arches of the originally harmony (Tikkun), which they seek to world, omnipresent God (Hebrew: “Ein sacred architecture but also to the for- reach through moral behavior. Sof,” The Infinite) had to withdraw mat of a panel as it might and emanated the light of life and wis- embellish a huge altar. Yet the picture Kiefer condenses his vision of the dom into the vacuum left behind. does not show any Christian iconogra- Creation of the world in this work, im- But the act of Creation did not succeed phy, but instead refers to the Jewish plementing in it the ten divine prin- without causing damage, for seven mysticism of the rabbi Isaac ben ciples, the different spheres of the of the ten vessels that should have re- Salomon Luria Ashkenazi (1534–1572), sefirot, in the form of inscribed The leaden picture Shebirat Ha Kelim ceived the light of God were shat- who ranks among the most significant lumps of earth, since the Tree of Life, marks an important work phase of tered. Therefore, the term “Shevirat theosophists and pioneers of the simultaneously representing the Anselm Kiefer at the end of the 1980s, HaKeilim” symbolically stands for a . Anselm Kiefer has been dea- collection of the sefirot, grows from the following the artist’s first visit to catastrophe. With their emanations, ling with the thinking and recorded earth (Malkuth). In Kiefer’s work, the Israel. He has since been engaging with the ten vessels, called “sefirot,” writings of the Lurianic Kabbalah since teachings of the sefirot are connected Jewish mysticism and the Kabbalah are meant to represent the harmony his first trip to Israel in 1983. The Kab- with the material and spiritual world. handed down by Isaac Luria. The depic- of the universe and thus God’s quali- balah that interests Kiefer is a positive The Lurianic Kabbalah today counts tion found here has been repeatedly ties. Because Creation under the mysticism with a spiritual dynamics as the most significant form of Jewish taken up by the artist in pictorial and power of the light began with a catas- oriented toward harmony and the cycle mysticism in Chassidic Judaism and sculptural variations. trophe, life is oriented toward the of beginning and end. due to its teaching of mutual help and recreation of the original perfection. shared responsibility it enjoys great This picture created in 1990 in his stu- The religious worldview of Luria is popularity. dio in Höpfingen clearly shows the based on a Kabbalistic conception of scheme of the sefirot from the Luria- the process of Creation, initiated nic Kabbalah that is so relevant for by the withdrawal of God, called “Zim- Kiefer. zum,” and the ensuing emergence of life from creative emptiness. But LEVEL 0 / ROOM 1 LEVEL GREATTHE 1985–1995 CARGO

The extremely broad format of the the form of sunflowers and their tripartite picture The Great Cargo is seeds. With the plants, the cycle of dominated by an airplane body beginning and end, a leitmotif of hovering in front of the painting’s the artist, is applied to the picture. depth of space and carrying bundles Hence there is a connection between of dried sunflowers. Anselm Kiefer everything earthly and the infinity was inspired to create this work by of the universe. ’s eponymous poem which was first broadcast on the radio in 1952 and published in the poetry collection “Die gestundete Zeit” Ingeborg Bachmann in 1953. For the artist, poems are The Great Cargo, 1953 artistic orientation points, like “buoys The summer’s heavy cargo has been loaded, in the sea”; and the surf is a recurring waiting in the harbor a sun ship lies motif in his oeuvre, reminiscent of as at your back the seagull dips and cries. Gustave Courbet’s many seascapes. The summer’s heavy cargo has been loaded. The work appears as an homage Waiting in the harbor a sun ship lies, and there upon the lips of figureheads to the “sun ship” in Bachmann’s poem. the lemur’s mocking smile appears and spreads. LEVEL 1 LILITH, 0 / ROOM 1987–1990 In Kiefer’s entire oeuvre, the mytholo- Until today, Lilith is demonized as a Kiefer turns the ship into an airplane Waiting in the harbor a sun ship lies. gical figure of Lilith plays a key role. child murdering creature of the night. made of plates from the Cologne At your back the seagull dips and cries, He takes up the theme in his pictures, Cathedral that the artist had acquired from the western horizon comes the order to artist’s books and installations in In the version shown here, Anselm during renovation works on the sink; You’ll drown, open-eyed, in the light you’ll drink, various representational modes, thus Kiefer reduces the figure to the church in 1981. Here, the leaden bom- as at your back the seagull dips and cries. lending her different characteristics. imagery of a black shock of hair. Lilith ber is a wreck no longer bringing (Translated by Peter Filkins, Harvard Review hovers in front of the skyline of a war and death but the fruit of life in No. 28, 2005, p. 120) The complex figure of Lilith can be megalopolis over which the bird’s-eye traced back to the writings of the Su- view glides to the distance. Lilith as merians. In the history of changing the destructor of entire cities and ci- religions, Lilith is also depicted in many vilizations stands here like on the versions, as a goddess or creature brink of an abyss in front of the pano- of the air, as a fool or a female demon. rama of São Paulo, the city which Her best-known form goes back to inspired Kiefer to this work after he Talmudic sources, where she is Adam’s participated in the biennale there. first wife in Paradise, a woman who does not want to be subjugated by Adam and even defies God by fleeing to the desert near the Red Sea. LEVEL 0 / ROOM 1 LEVEL 1987–1989 (LEVIATHAN), CENSUS

LEVEL 1 SATURN 0 / ROOM TIME, 1987 Census is an important work in the shape of a snake, named “Leviathan,” In this picture, the artist combines December the deity of agriculture and artist’s dealing with the power of from the Old Testament. elements of nature with the material the art of writing was celebrated. In the state and its relation to its citi- of alchemy. The miracle of life that his typical handwriting, Kiefer named zens, represented here as “60 million With his dedication, Anselm Kiefer constantly renews itself, represented the picture in the top left corner, peas.” The piece was produced from makes reference to Carl Schmitt, thus by the ferns, is protected by a layer “Saturn-Zeit,” inscribing into the work 1987–89 in the wake of the nation- articulating a critical reading of the of lead, thus alluding to Saturn the connection between the earth al protest movement against the sta- main proposition of Thomas Hobbes’ to which the element was attributed and the planets revolving around tistical survey required by law. At “Leviathan” (1651), since in his theory in antiquity. Ferns belong to the first the sun. Saturn belongs to the solar issue are fundamental questions per- of the state from 1938, he regards plants on earth, and on Midsummer system and is a component of the taining to the function of the state the constitutional state as inferior to Night, marking the summer solstice, unity of the cosmological teaching of as a protective power or a threat, the totalitarian state. fern seeds are traditionally collec- relations that Kiefer depicts. The as Thomas Hobbes raised them in his ted, because after being properly pre- festival celebrated each year in honor treatise “Leviathan” (1651). Via the The steel container filled with peas ad- pared they are said to make one in- of Saturn is devoted to reciprocity state contract, power is transferred to ditionally appears as a prison or even vulnerable and invisible. Anselm Kiefer and love. the sovereign. To illustrate this radi- a camp, reminding one of the horrible is fascinated by this mythology. For cal theory of the state, in which transport of humans to the extermi- Saturn Time, Kiefer references the Ro- the human is not recognized as an in- nation camps of the National Socialist man festival of “Saturnalia,” when in dividual, Thomas Hobbes adopted dictatorship. the personification of a dragon in the MUTATULI, 0 / ROOM 1 1991 LEVEL

elements of air for the spirit, water With this picture, Anselm Kiefer marks conquered first by the Dutch East for creation and fire for the closeness a trail to the colonial past. After India Company (VOC) in 1619 and of God. humans were exploited as a resource, then by the British in 1811. By altering tulips were the first objects of spe- the pen name Multatuli to Mutatuli, Kiefer works with these complex inter- culation in colonial trade. On the Kiefer in the context of Dekker’s novel relationships based on a simple bottom right corner of the picture, refers to the numerous occupations arrangement of a dried plant on a par- a dedication to Max Havelaar can of today’s Indonesia. Dekker had deri- tially burned lead plate. be found, the main character of the ved his pen name from a quote of eponymous novel by the Dutch writer Ovid’s “Tristia”: “Multa tuli,” which can The mullein is a plant that can be Eduard Douwes Dekker. Under the aptly be translated from Latin as “I found all over the world. Since anti- pen name of Multatuli, the author in have suffered much.” Kiefer’s play on quity, its various species have 1860 published his autobiographi- words, in turn, references the Latin been described in numerous forms cally shaped work aiming to critique word mutilare, “to mutilate.” He thus as a natural remedy. The burned the colonial rule of the island of Java. alludes to the numerous victims of black leaden ground, however, refers When Dekker, at the age of just 18, the colonial war on Java. to a further use: Dunked in tar, mul- assumed a post with the colonial ad- MULLEIN, 1992 LEVEL 1992 1 MULLEIN, 0 / ROOM

leins also served as torches. ministration, the island already looked back on the terrible events of being Kiefer has repeatedly underscored the So according to the Kabbalistic tea- aspect of his own vertical thinking. chings, the burned mullein stands This often quoted statement refers to for destruction and also a subsequent his view that history results from new beginning. But it can simulta- layering. In a physical sense, this is neously be read as a bringer of light also true of the shape of Kiefer’s work: and therefore makes reference to stacks and layers of material create the renewing force of fire and ash. In expansive landscapes of which only the this manner, it establishes a connec- surface can be seen. There is no tion between earth and heaven, or indication of what lies beneath these also between the past and the future. overpaintings.

In a conceptual sense, it corresponds with the Kabbalistic mysticism of four levels or worlds, ranging from the underworld with the element of earth representing the material body to the three upper worlds with the LEVEL 0 / ROOM 2 LEVEL 1971–1991 OF SOLITUDE, 20 YEARS

rence to the innumerable women of history who oftentimes marked the start of historical turns, such as political revolutions or re-writings in the history of ideas. This homage is not only to women of antiquity but also to female rulers, musicians, poetesses, and revolutionaries of modernity. To highlight the women’s various activities, Kiefer chose individual attributes such as books or geometrical shapes, letting them protrude from the figures in the place of the head. In several presenta- tions, the artist additionally decided to write in his typical handwriting the names of the women, for which the sculptures could stand, on the One of Anselm Kiefer’s most famous wall. For example, the sculpture from The book as a medium of cultural The cash books placed on the leaden series of works is Women of Anti- 2006 with stacked leaden books memory and historiography is a leit- books are from a stay in New York. quity, with which the artist began in can indeed be regarded as a manifes- motif in Kiefer’s art. Besides sketch- In 20 Years of Solitude, Anselm Kiefer the mid-1990s. The first prominent tation of the Greek poetess Sappho. books, the artist has created huge addressed his own role as an artist group of women was already created But she also stands for many other fe- and heavy leaden books that recall and creator. The object is like an LEVEL 2 WOMEN OF ANTIQUITY, 0 / ROOM 2006 in 1983: Women of the Revolution. male writers and poetesses in the the large-format tomes made in interim balance sheet of long solitary The strong emphasis on the fact that history of culture. The two sculptures medieval book manufactories. They work. The symbolism of accounting women in history are passed on from the group of works entitled are piled leaden plates from the sums up his artistic success, but also merely by and through the attendant Women of Antiquity shape the room as roof of the Cologne Cathedral that the losses that have left their mark

men – or not at all – is symbolized signs of female self-empowerment after the renovation works wound up on life. With the traces of his fertility, in Kiefer’s Women of Antiquity by their in history. in Anselm Kiefer’s store of mate- the artist reassures himself and completely lacking a head, and thus rial. The artist fills the leaden books bears witness to the creative power a face and individuality. with his knowledge and visions. in his own work. They contain dried plants and draw- In total contrast to this are the plas- ings, cultural memory. These layers ter sculptures of voluminous dresses of material are stored on wooden of various styles and epochs that pallets like sediments of a history of distinctly stress the femininity of the culture passed on through recordings. figures. Here, the artist makes refe- EBENE 0 / ROOM 2006 3 EBENE FLAKES, BLACK

The work is an image of great sadness. lines in the winter of 1942, referring Kiefer was inspired by ’s to Ukraine, his old homeland, to where (1920–1970) poem “Black Flakes.” The the Second World War had brought Jewish poet maintained a close rela- death and destruction. The work entitled In the Beginning are woven from a lead band into which tionship with Ingeborg Bachmann and LEVEL 2 IN THE 0 / ROOM BEGINNING, 2008 depicts the elemental force of nature Kiefer inserted numerous black- in his work made a The landscape painted and shaped by with surging billows and mountains and-white photographs. They show central theme. Working artistically on Kiefer is an endless snow-covered of clouds. Anselm Kiefer combines the landscapes with repetitions of the unsayable, unimaginable, is expanse, barren and cold. In the middle Old Testament story of Creation towers. These are sculptures created what in turn connects Anselm Kiefer of the picture hangs a leaden book with the idea of a connection between by Kiefer which he set up on the to Paul Celan. The Latin word “holo- emanating star-shaped verses bet- heaven and earth. Jacob’s Ladder, grounds of his studio in Barjac in caustum” means wholly burned. The ween the rows of charred wood. In this whose history in the Old Testament, southern France. Kiefer calls the gi- charred rests of wood arranged in picture, Anselm Kiefer inscribed Paul Genesis 28:11, Kiefer alludes to gantic towers made of concrete perspectival rows symbolize the mass Celan’s poetry in the ground with his here, is a vision that fleeing Jacob elements that he cast himself “heav- death of Jews during the Holocaust typical cursive handwriting, seeking to had in a dream describing the path of enly palaces.” With the towers as well as the innumerable war casual- approach the ungraspability and angels between the earthly and and their ruinous architecture mar- ties. “Jakobs himmlisches Blut” inconceivability of what occurred and heavenly spheres. Kiefer uses the king the landscape, the artist (Jacob’s heavenly blood) is a line from was written. motif as a metaphor of spiritual takes up the important reference to Celan’s poem that Kiefer cites in growth in the Jewish tradition and as the Tower of Babel. the furrows of the burned and snowy a sign for the triumph over death ground on his picture of the same in Christianity. The rungs of the ladder name. The poet wrote these dismal

LEVEL 0 / ROOM 3 LEVEL 2014 CONCLUSUS, HORTUS

With the gigantic piece Palm Sunday, “The palm branches are a sign of roy- Kiefer again draws a line from the alty, victory and festivity.” But Old to the New Testament. Two rows Christ’s triumphal procession turns of 30 heavy showcases made of into the Way of the Cross. “The palms steel containing dried plants, plaster, reverse the meaning of victory to earth, and lead frame a palm tree the opposite, to misfortune or failure.” cast in artificial resin. Gray, lifeless and uprooted, the whole tree lies In the palm branches, the artist across the room, supported by a heap additionally discerns similarities with of bricks. The palm symbolically the spine of the human skeleton. alludes to the passion and martyr- The plants covered with plaster, such dom of Christ, who as the king of the as palm branches, sunflowers and Jews was murdered on the cross. dead roses, form reliefs and are co- It therefore stands for the origin of vered with a protective coating. Christianity, the expectation of resurrection after death. The monu- The artist invokes the Passion narra- mentality of the installation is as tive so as to embed the salvation and captivating as the pictorial program of passion history of Christian-Jewish Christian iconography in the sacred life in a cycle of life, death and resur- PALM SUNDAY, 2007 LEVEL 3 PALM 0 / ROOM SUNDAY, rooms of the Middle Ages. Kiefer does rection. Kiefer wrote the word for not show figures, however, but drapes Palm Sunday in various Latin langua- Hortus Conclusus is the colorful coun- The title of the picture refers to the plants as abstract representatives ges with chalk onto the painting terpart to the earthy tones of the Song of Songs in the Old Testament,

of man in the showcases. The artist ground of the showcases. The thorns installation Palm Sunday opposite to where the bride is described as locked formed the ground of the pictures out in the pictures point to Christ’s it. The lead plates of the ground and chaste. Transferred to the New of cracked red earth to which black crown, while the iron chastity belts shine in bright green which the artist Testament, the hortus conclusus ash was added. The palm branches symbolize the Virgin Mary. achieved using the chemical pro- stands for the symbolism of Mary, the fixed in plaster set themselves off from cess of electrolysis. To this end, the woman as a locked garden. In Kiefer’s it. On Palm Sunday, they stand for Out of the crucifixion story, Kiefer work is submerged with copper in work, the Garden of Eden has made the people that prior to the Passion forges not a defeat but a rise. His art- a liquid that conducts electricity. The way for sudden chaos, as if the plants Week attend Christ’s entrance to work celebrates sensual overwhel- copper ions that migrate to the had been thrashed with the stone. Jerusalem. Kiefer transfers to the ex- ming and thus makes the inconceivable lead react by turning green. Flowers Yet the picture Hortus Conclusus does hibition space the cultural-historical a bit more tangible. and leaves are painted into the suggest a moment of pause and power of the moment when, ac- pasty mass of paint on the picture stillness that follows a storm – a con- cording to the bible, Jesus arrives in surface. Color accents lend the templation on love and passion. Jerusalem on horseback. condensed material an explosive char- acter. LEVEL 2 / CUBE 6 2 / CUBE LEVEL 2005 JAIPUR,

Dried sunflowers protrude unreally presses until today. A crucial proce- part of Jaipur’s Jantar Mantar. When from a large printing machine. dure in the letterpress process the city was founded, Maharaja Their seeds are mixed with wooden lies in setting the letters to which ink Jai Singh II already began erecting an block letters and spread out on is applied in plates that are then extensive facility as a research the floor. The installation is surround- printed on a medium such as pieces station for astronomy and astrology ed by leaden books. of newspaper. The presses with consisting of 14 different struc- moveable letters, which were ori- tures. Their various functions range The title of the expansive sculpture, ginally operated exclusively by hand, from measuring time, to forecasting The Lost Letter, addresses both loss laid the foundation for the media eclipses and planet orbits, to the and transformation into something revolution. But the lost letters dis- drawing up of so-called ephemerides, new. As a hermeneutic interpretation persed around Kiefer’s sculpture the positional values of astronomic technique, so-called gematria as- also bear witness to the transforma- objects in a coordinate system. sists in understanding and interpreting tion of the history of media and texts by assigning numbers. Due the transition to modern digital prin- Kiefer takes up two elements of to the fact that both the Greek and ting processes. the Jantar Mantar. The central stair- Hebrew alphabet assign individual way alludes to the large sundial numbers to letters, the Talmud already In an interview, Kiefer describes the Samrat Jantar and the connection reveals first signs of the use of ge- sensorial experience of early printed between earth and the heavenly matria in the Jewish tradition. materials: “The letters impressed sphere. The artist transfers the con- by the Tiegel can be felt with the fin- In the early 1990s, Kiefer took exten- stellation to the present. The rows In the work on view here, Kiefer refers gers and are thus also a sensual sive trips to Mexico, China and of numbers next to the stars are to the fact that letters which have experience when reading books. Today, India, before finally leaving Germany based on the codes that the NASA as- lost their meaningful connections can not only the surface feel of the art in 1993 and relocating his studio signed to designate stars. The nume-

LEVEL 2 / CUBE 6 THE LOST LETTER, 2011–2017 be newly arranged to form new words. of printing has been forgotten. With from Höpfingen in the Odenwald to rical codes of the NASA as well as This transformation into a new the transition to digital media, the Barjac in southern France. stars are recurring motifs in Kiefer’s life is simultaneously reflected by the books themselves lose their relevance work. His fascination with cosmology dried sunflower seeds: Although for future generations.” The artwork More than ten years after his trip goes back to the British philosopher the large golden blossoms are black tells of the end of the Gutenberg to India, he is still so influenced by Robert Fludd, who in his teachings pos- here, emphasizing the death of era and preserves it in the sense of the impressions he gained that tulated that every plant on earth is the plant, its seeds on the floor bear analog nostalgia. in 2005 he starts working on several assigned to a star in the universe and new life from which future genera- pieces entitled Jaipur. Jaipur is that therefore an analogy between tions can grow. the capital and industrial center of the the microcosm and macrocosm exists. northern Indian state of Rajasthan. The printing press, known as the One sees a semicircular architecture Heidelberg Tiegel, was one of the most with a prominent stairway that in successful of its time, providing the center of the picture leads to the the technical foundations for printing horizon and toward heaven. It is CONTACT ENTRANCE FEES Kunsthalle Mannheim Regular 12 € Friedrichsplatz 4 · 68165 Mannheim Reduced 10 € Visitors telephone +49 621 293 6423 Evening ticket Fax +49 621 293 6412 (1.5 hours before closing time) 8 € [email protected] Family ticket www.kuma.art (2 adults with children under 18) 20 € Annual ticket 30 € OPENING HOURS Annual ticket for students 12 € Tue – Sun and holidays 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. Public guided tours (60 min.) 6 € 1st Wed of the month 10 a.m.– 10 p.m. Children and youths (free admission only on the first Wed of under 18 free admission the month from 6 p.m.) Mon closed MVV art evening 1st Wednesday of the month MUSEUM 6–10 p.m. RESTAURANT LUXX MUSEUM SHOP For Kiefer, who was born in 1945 and Already in 1916, the crescent-shaped Admission free +49 621 170 25511 +49 621 432 92670 grew up after the Second World War, region was therefore called the Fertile the play with ruins forms the basis of Crescent by the American Egypto- his artistic work, something which logist James H. Breasted. Breasted is revealed in pictures and sculptures changed the cultural-historical of pyramids and towers. Numerous thinking of his time by proving that

LEVEL 2010 2 / CUBE 6 THE FERTILE CRESCENT, bricks on the bottom edge of the the biblical recordings, and with them picture bear handwritten names of the Old Testament, were partially cities, such as Persepolis, Petra, adopted from ancient Egyptian texts. Akkad, or Jericho, some of which still And so it is now assumed that the NEW: MEMO – THE GAME CHECK THE APP! ALWAYS UP TO DATE The interactive game for The multimedia companion Subscribe to our newsletter exist today, while others are ruins Tower of Babel itself originated in the children from 8 to 10. Take part through the Kunsthalle with guided to receive all current in the region of prehistoric , construction of so-called ziggurats, and delve into the exciting tours and information on information on the Kunsthalle Phoenicia, Assyria, and Mesopotamia. terraced temples. These heavenly world of art! exhibitions, artworks and events. Mannheim: www.kuma.art Shaped by the large rivers of Euphra- hills are the attempt to come closer

tes and Tigris as well as climati- to the gods, a motif one can often PICTURE CREDITS cally favorable conditions, the region find in Kiefer’s oeuvre. All © Anselm Kiefer Kiefer Collection Grothe at the Kunsthalle Mannheim: Beginning, 2008, photo: Charles Duprat. Black Flakes, is today regarded as the origin of Sephirot, 2000, photo: Kunsthalle Mannheim/Rainer Diehl. 2006, photo: Charles Duprat. Jaipur, 2005, Shebirat Ha Kelim, 1990. Lilith, 1987–1990. The photo: Charles Duprat. The Fertile Crescent, 2010. the Neolithic Revolution. It is where Great Cargo, 1985–1995, photo: Charles Duprat. Saturn Time, 1987, photo: Charles Duprat. Census (Leviathan). Kiefer Collection Grothe in the Franz Marc Museum, the transition from nomadic life to 1987–1989, photo: Charles Duprat. Mullein, 1992. Kochel am See: Cover: The Lost Letter. 2011–2017 Mutatuli, 1991. Frauen der Antike, 2006. 20 Years of © photo: Georges Poncet. Palm Sunday, 2007, photo: crop and livestock farming took place. Solitude, 1971–1991, photo: Charles Duprat. In the Charles Duprat. Hortus Conclusus, 2014. Supported by

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