I am not trying to illustrate religion. I’m a storyteller with a broken history. —Anselm Kiefer

Background

Anselm Kiefer (born on 8 March 1945, in Donauschingen, Germany) is a German contemporary artist. He used mixed media such as straw, ash, clay, lead and shellac in his works. He developed themes about German history particularly reflected the Nazi rule during Second World War. His painting, sculpture and installation have made him one of the most important artists among his generation. His spiritual paintings reflect the ambivalence and his feeling towards the German nationalism and its impact on history. He criticized the legacy and called up the German history.



In 1966, Kiefer abandoned his Law and Romance Language Studies at University of Freiburg to study at art academies in Freiburg, Karlsruhe and Dusseldorf. By 1970s, he studied art formally under Joseph Beuy, another German comtemporary artist. Kiefer started working with gloss, straw, wood and plant parts to develop and enrich his works. He aimed to show that the materials in a way in which they were not disguised could be represented in their natural form. His style was heavily influenced by Beuy - the Neo-Expressionism.


Kiefer was awarded the Wolf Prize in 1990. In 1999, the Japan Art Association awarded him the Premium Imperiale for his outstanding achievements in the art field. In 2008, he was awarded Peace Prize of the German Book Trade. Kiefer gains international attention and have contemporary art exhibitions worldwide. 

Parsifal I, 1973

Type of work

His subject-matter mainly ranges over mythology and history, alchemy and the nature of belief in the early 1970s.

Parsifal II, 1973

Kiefer's works were also influenced by Paul Celan's poems about German history and the horror of the Holocaust, which have the spiritual concepts of Kabbalan. One of the examples is Margarethe. It was inspired by Celan's poem "Todesfuge"

Margarethe, 1981

In general, Kiefer's works are in musty, depressive and  destructive style. His works provoke negative feelings. He incorporated with different media on his works and the paintings have very thick and rich texture.  Departure from Egypt, 1984 is an example of his rough brushwork. It is sort of abstract  formed by found subjects and other materials. It has a very destructive and violence-like scene. Innenraum is one of my favourite paintings of Kiefer. It has simplex colour tone. The natural light get through from the glass ceiling creates strong contrast with the darkness in the room. This painting also has high extensity. 

Departure from Egypt, 1984 

Innenraum, 1981

By the mid 1980s, Kiefer widened his theme from a focus on Germany's role in civilization to the fate of art and culture. His work not only involved national identify and collective memory, but also occult symbolism, theology and mysticism.

Osiris und Isis, 1985-1987

Osiris und Isis is based on an Egyptian myth but Kiefer also connected the painting with the allegory of the Nazi rules in World War II. 

Palm Sunday, 2006

This is a mixed media installation by Kiefer. It consists a 30 ft long palm tree surrounded by 44 paintings on the wall. 











My thoughts

Anselm Kiefer has been one of my favourite contemporary artist since high school. During sixth form I had a quick research on him for my art project. It is quite rare to find artists that are very into depressive style  and I was so fascinated of his paintings. Also, I found Kiefer is quite different from other artists, he is patriotic - which was the main ambition for him to produce artwork. Kiefer illustrated his thoughts and beliefs completely in his works. His depressive paintings shows he felt biting about the German history and we can see his emotional journey throughout his work. I like the fact that his paintings implied the horrible side of nationalism and fascism which provoke thoughts, arouse reflection and send strong message to the audience.  I appreciated that he has faith art can heal a traumatized nation and he keens on developing artwork as a medium of approaching the world with the German history and culture. We can rarely find contemporary artists have such deep mind and positive attitude to implicate humanity and ethical questions in artwork. 


On the other hand, I like the style and skill that Kiefer has adopted in his paintings. His paintings are mostly in dark and musty tone, it would be difficult to show clear three-dimensional objects and good extensity. But in all his interior paintings he tackled the difficulties well. Also, he was a risk-taking artist, putting different found objects in his works and did a lot mixed media experiment, which created unique effects in his artwork. He inspired me a lot on my final year Fine Art project - dare to put everything I found in the paintings and mix all the possible materials together. 

I like Kiefer's works not only because of the aesthetic reasons, but also the deep meaning behind each paintings. He is a great influence in a lot of aspects. I hope more people will know about him and his paintings.




Reference:
http://artblart.com/2011/01/03/exhibition-anselm-kiefer-at-baltic-centre-for-contemporary-art-gateshead/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anselm_Kiefer
http://www.sfmoma.org/explore/collection/artwork/171
http://www.c4gallery.com/artist/database/anselm-kiefer/anselm-kiefer.html
http://www.moca.org/pc/viewArtWork.php?id=32

Song Dong 36 Calendars Exhibition 

Last Saturday we went to the Song Dong 36 Calendars Exhibition in Quarry Bay. It was an art project in a calendar style recorded Song Dong's personal perspectives rather than objective and precise memories of the past. The calendars are in style of traditional hanging calendars, they represented their significant position in the past and contrast to the modern world. Hanging calendar is one of my favourite traditional decorations. When I first got in the exhibition, I felt strongly related to the theme and I was very impressed - there were 864 calendars there!

The place of the exhibition was quite spacey. I love how they put the original calendars on the wall and display the rest (edited ones) in the middle of the room. It used the space efficiently but it wouldn't make us feel oppressive.

I like how Song Dong paid attention to minor daily matters and brought them in the calendars. This postman repeated the same actions every hour/day but probably most of the people did not notice that.

This drawing recorded how Song Dong fixed his relationship with his dad. It was one of the most important moments in his life.

Song Dong drew the famous artwork by Damien Hirst (he is one of my favourite artists!) in the calendar of August 2007. He commented on the controversy of the artwork sarcastically.

One of my favourite sketch from Song Dong. In April 2011, Ai Weiwei got arrested by the government.
The annotation was very sarcastic by questioning "Where is Ai Weiwei? He disappeared!". Song Dong  used the art to mock the corrupted political issue in China.






I am very impressed by Song Dong's project. His sketches are very simple yet detailed. His work includes social and political issues, individual experience and sarcasm.  I like he added annotations of his feelings for each event which bring out the collective memories and reflection for us. It added meanings on the plain drawings.

I love the idea that the public can involve in this project and let everyone express their own thoughts on the particular issues the calendars. It created a greater interaction between the artist himself and the public. It allowed the participants created another level of interpretation. All calendars were interpreted in unique ways, some were abstract, some were plain, some were colourful. Surprisingly, when they were put together in the same area, they merged with each other well even they had different styles. It was like a diversity in our society. Different people have different personalities and style, but we still get on well in the society.

The artist chose to cross out all the squares and put colours in the sketch. It created contrast of the calendar.

The calendar was full of passionate kisses!

I like the colour which blended and dropped  from the top  on the calendar. This  work created a soft  and delightful feeling.

This is one of my favourite edited calendar. The artist used black watercolour to cover the whole page. It is more abstract in a sense of expression. I like the artist expressed himself radically to evoke his moods on this calendar.

This was a mixed media artwork. The artist put some  ash on the calendar. I am not very sure the meaning of it but I like the way of expression.

This artist chose to tear a part of the calendar

This artist chose to write A LOT intensively in this calendar. Compare to other calendars, this one is relatively plain. The artist tried to express the messages by words rather than picture/colour. 

This drawing reminds me of my childhood - watching Japanese cartoon everyday.

This artist used a more creative way to express himself. He tore the calendar and rolled it.

This exhibition is, by far, my favourite contemporary art exhibition in Hong Kong. I felt strongly connected with the themes that Song Dong mentioned and I got some deep thoughts when I was looking at his work. He brought out some old memories of us and caught our emotions. The public involvement was definitely a highlight of this exhibition. I was so glad I can enjoy unique artwork from 433 artists (including Song Dong, of course) in one exhibition. It inspired me a lot on the way of expression and interpretation of different artwork. I really wish in the future I would have the chance to involve in Song Dong's artwork!