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Ich halte alle Indien in meiner Hand, 2005,
copyright A.Kiefer, Fotoright Dr. M. Ruiter |
The exhibition MEMORABILIA in the Ludwig Museum brings together 25 works by the internationally acclaimed artist Anselm Kiefer: these provide an exemplary illustration of the themes of memory and the written record. They include artist's books, 'infertile landscapes', lead books and large-format works dealing with thematic complexes such as war, memorial landscapes, mythological interpretations and sculptures. Important aspects of Kiefer's oeuvre are presented through works drawn from private and museum collections as well as from the Ludwig collection.
Like few other artists, Kiefer embodies the yearning to imbue history, natural phenomena and narratives which have made their mark on human history with a mythological character. His typically large-format works treat motifs from German literature and are centred around themes drawn from ancient history to the Cold War; in doing so, they take up subject matter deriving from world history and subject it to interpretation in the form of mythical figures such as 'Europa' or 'Women of Antiquity'. His work also revolves around the theme of nature – in the form of emptied landscapes that have become infertile.
In his images and installations, pictorial and written language often meet on equal terms. Like visual art, the written word is also able to convey imposing images and to sustain the vitality of posterity's relationship to the narratives that bind cultures together. The seemingly childlike handwriting and the clumsy capital letters become narrative pictorial elements; simultaneously, certain passages of the paintings become mysterious signs. Literature and writing are particularly important to Kiefer. By stating the names of places and people whose memory increasingly threatens to disappear from the collective consciousness, he works against forgetting.
In addition to the fascination exerted by the content of Kiefer's complex pictorial worlds, the works' scale enables them to dominate exhibition spaces and also to impress themselves upon viewers, to exert a literally physical power over these viewers and to challenge them to actively engage with the works. In various ways, the high horizon lines and the many mysterious details stimulate viewers to engage in an exploration of their own points of view. This stimulating character is augmented by the unconventional painterly and working techniques. Thickly applied layers of paint and colour; relics formed of straw, dirt, ash and lead and assemblages constructed of model airplanes or submarines cause the images to develop beyond their two-dimensional nature and to take on the appearance of volumetric reliefs. Because of their size and their vibrantly sculptural quality, Kiefer's pictorial worlds often produce the impression of narrative theatrical productions – and always provoke an enduring, unsettling reaction.
Kiefer has been honoured with numerous renowned awards: he received the Adenauer-de Gaulle-Prize in Paris in 2009 in recognition of his dedication on behalf of the cultural dialogue between Germany and France. In this context, Kiefer's oeuvre represents a bridge extending between Germany and France, and this is the primary reason why it has been chosen to provide the focus for the twentieth anniversary of the founding of the Ludwig Museum. The Koblenz museum's collection is concentrated on contemporary positions in France, and, to celebrate our anniversary, we have deliberately chosen to honour this extraordinary artist, who has chosen Germany's neighbour as his adoptive home.
This exhibition is supported by the Ludwig Foundation in Aachen and by our media partner SWR (Südwestrundfunk).
Exhibition Catalogue:
Anselm Kiefer – Memorabilia, ed. Dr. Beate Reifenscheid, with contributions by Prof. Klaus Honnef and Prof. Dieter Ronte (Milan, 2012). [text in German and English]
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Anselm Kiefer "Mutatuli" 2004/2005
copyrights Galerie Röpke Köln / Copyrights Anselm Kiefer |
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