Behind The Intentions of Anselm Kiefer: The Regenerative Nature of Glass Walls
Often, art will either amaze, intellectually challenge or guide the visitor into an unravelling world. Anselm Kiefer’s art does it all: a reassuring, terrorising whirlwind which speaks to those willing to take it all in. The presentation of Kiefer’s works, regardless of its order, staging or timing, reveal the poetry of an artist’s train of thought and the depth of his materials of choice.
Anselm Kiefer is a German painter and sculptor born two months after the end of World War II. Through his work, he questions the place of art in German society after the trauma experienced by his generation through the Nazi regime and the Holocaust. While questioning the history and politics of a country is common today, at the time of conception, Anselm Kiefer’s work was perceived within the country as problematic and controversial.
The retrospective at the Centre Pompidou displays Kiefer’s most iconic pieces at Barjac and more recently in the warehouse located on the outskirts of Paris. An intense journey comprised of major paintings, books of lead, a set of windows and an in-situ installation. This shattering promenade invites the viewer to take in all of the artist’s violence, at the base of his questioning, and open their feelings to inconceivable sensations.
Unconventional elements are captured and enclosed within the vitrines. Their content form the words of a poem which only Anselm Kiefer knows the meaning but which he channels through emotions. He plays the role of a stage director in this part he designed specifically for the exhibition. 40 window cases in which rusty industrial machineries, straw, snakes and lead interact, quarrel and embrace one another. Lead. A symbolic element. The only material, according to the artist, strong enough to support the weight of History.
Anselm Kiefer tells stories through his vitrines. They are made of texture and music, words from Paul Ceylan’s poems and music from Wagner’s repertoire, two influences dear to the artist.
According to Jean-Michel Bouhours, curator of Anselm Kiefer’s retrospective at the Paris Pompidou Centre, Anselm Kiefer’s vitrines are influenced by the work of Joseph Beuys and Marcel Duchamp. Indeed, from the numbers of previous works’ narrative figuration, we are carried to an esoteric symbolism where the meaning of each art piece is not immediately revealed to the viewer.
Objects are floating and the window itself becomes an alchemical element of space. Unlike the paintings, the windows are approachable. This proximity brings the viewer closer to the subject matter, intensifying the sensations and allowing them to better penetrate our souls. Like a snake stealthily emerging our guts to interfere with our mind and awaken our demons that we yet try so hard to bury and hide.
Behind the intention of the artist to break free from his amnesia and to reach resurrection with the power of poetry and spirituality, hides an energy and a sincerity in its purest form. Anselm Kiefer creates an intellectual and an emotional burst, a political statement overshadowed by a sassy beauty.
Anselm Kiefer’s retrospective is exhibited at Centre Pompidou in Paris, France until April 18th 2016. https://www.centrepompidou.fr/en
Tamara Akcay
