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Anselm Kiefer

Through 150 works, Kiefer’s exhibition at the Centre Pompidou, the first retrospective in France, offers an immersion in the titanic yet profoundly reflective universe of his art.

Anselm Kiefer Pompidou

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Organised in chronologically arranged thematic sections, the exhibition at the Centre Pompidou reveals the obsessional effort of Anselm Kiefer, born in 1945, to develop a new language both poetic and cathartic, steeped in German culture, in universal history, in mysticism and philosophy.
Anselm Kiefer Pompidou
Top: Anselm Kiefer, Für Paul Celan: Aschenblume, 2006. Oil, acrylic, shellac and burned books on canvas. 330 x 760 x 40 cm. Private collection. Photo © Charles Duprat. Above: Anselm Kiefer, Lilith, 1987-1990. Oil, emulsion, shellac, charcoal ashes on canvas, clay, hair, lead strips and poppy on canvas. 380 x 560 cm. Private collection, family Grothe. Photo © Atelier Anselm Kiefer
Anselm Kiefer erupted onto the German art scene in 1969 by addressing the history of the second World War with a series of controversial works, dispelling the collective amnesia that prevailed in the country. Since then, Kiefer’s prolific production has borne the mark of boundlessness, not only in its monumentality and in the power of its materiality, but also in the infinite wealth of sources on which it draws in its quest to plumb the depths of memory and the past. With its 150 works, this exhibition at the Centre Pompidou – Kiefer’s first retrospective in France – offers an immersion in the titanic yet profoundly reflective universe of his art.
Anselm Kiefer Pompidou
Anselm Kiefer, Mann im Wald, 1971. 174 x 189 cm. Acrilyc on cotton fabric. Private collection, San Francisco. Photo © Ian Reeves
Kiefer adduces the work of poets, thinkers and writers – from Ingeborg Bachmann to Heidegger to Genet – in his own paintings, books and vitrines, using citation as a link between times past and present. His poetics of ruin is elaborated in paint, clay, plant materials, ash and lead, this last the alchemical substance par excellence that reflects both the melancholy at the heart of Kiefer’s creative process and his faith in ultimate renewal.
Anselm Kiefer Pompidou
Anselm Kiefer, Osiris und Isis, 1985-1987. Oil, acrylic, emulsion, clay, porcelain, lead, copper wire and printed circuit on canvas. 379.7 x 561.3 x 24.1 cm. San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, purchase through a gift of Jean Stein by exchange, the Mrs. Paul L. Wattis Fund, and the Doris and Donald Fisher Fund. © Anselm Kiefer / Photo Ben Blackwell

until 18 April 2016
Anselm Kiefer
Curator: Jean-Michel Bouhours
Research: Léa Salvador
Production: Sara Renaud
Exhibition design: Corinne Marchand
Centre Pompidou

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