Between Heaven and Earth: Anselm Kiefer’s Fallen Angels Exhibition
During my stay in Florence, I was very much interested in seeing Anselm Kiefer’s Exhibition at the Palazzo Strozzi Museum ending July 2024. You may be asking, who is this artist? I vaguely knew of him from having read about one of his works auctioned for over $3 million. He is a German painter and sculptor whose entire body of work grapples with humanity’s many controversial issues, mostly of historical context starting with Germany’s history as well and the battle between good and evil. The Fallen Angels exhibition is breathless, as it contains many different themes of his work and personal journey. Eight enormous rooms of art pieces and installations that blew me away……
A Bit More About Anselm Kiefer
Born in Germany a few months after World War II, Anselm grew up in the aftermath of the war and its destruction. Many of his works confront this dark past of Germany, recognizing that his father was a German soldier. He is an advocate for what he refers to as remembering and facing the loss of Germany’s culture by the Nazis. Before being a painter, he worked in photography, noted in the exhibition, along with over 200 paintings and sculpture pieces. At 80, he continues to produce work and is known for being a bit unusual, deeply philosophical and spiritual, and is considered one of the most important artists of the 20th and 21st centuries.
What About the Art Exhibition …Fallen Angels?
The exhibition consisted of eight rooms of Anselm Kiefer’s works representing a combination of both historical and philosophical themes that draw from both ancient history to World War II to the present day. He uses a range of materials, starting with sunflowers, seeds, metal, plants and plaster using gold leaf paint and the heavy layering of paintbrush strokes on to canvas. It was helpful that the museum provided a pamphlet that described the artist’s thinking for each separate room based on his reflections of human nature, both its conflicts and contradictions. There are a number of art pieces, such as the one on the courtyard that draws on the ongoing battle between good and evil, an ongoing theme in many of his works.
There are several rooms that I found to be unique and inspiring. For instance, his sculpture pieces using three dressmaker dress-forms to showcase beautiful white dresses with the head portion containing a small boulder, wooden bird houses and a tree branch were curiously eye-popping. There wasn’t much of a description in the pamphlet, but I loved it. I also like the way he layered thick paint on canvas, much like Van Gogh, apparent in many of the paintings throughout the rooms.
The most breathtaking room was the wall to wall to ceiling exhibit composed of 60 of Kiefer’s works with a large table mirror in the center of the room inviting visitors to immerse themselves in his forty-year career as a painter. It is hard to show the impact of this room in my photos. The exhibition ends with his early career in photography and his exploration of Germany’s past. There are photos where he is dressed in his father’s uniform, mimicking him as a way of challenging his own identity and culture.
The exhibition was complex, intense, imaginative and daring, reflecting on a man’s life and personal spiritual journey. Overall, I also found it dazzling, provocative and a bit bizarre. If interested in learning more about the exhibition, I have added this video link, besides my photos.
No Comments