Anselm Kiefer
dal 13/5/2010 al 29/6/2010
Segnalato da
13/5/2010
Anselm Kiefer
Galleria Lorcan O'Neill (vecchia sede), Roma
Die Ordnung der Engel. L'artista, alla sua seconda personale in galleria, presenta alcune carte e un gruppo di grandi dipinti sotto vetro. Vetrine monumentali che racchiudono rami, girasoli, piante nei vari stadi della loro vita, che fanno riferimento al tema della morte e della rinascita. Il tema della morte, infatti, in contrasto con la ricerca del segreto della vita eterna, e' un tema molto imporante per l'artista. Egli trae ispirazione dalle antiche origini nordiche o tedesche, dalle dottrine giudaico-cristiane, fino all'alchimia.
On Friday 14 May 2010, Anselm Kiefer opens his second solo show with Galleria Lorcan O’Neill Roma. New, tall paintings are on display in the main gallery, and a sculpture accompanied by works on paper is installed are the gallery’s annex space.
Kiefer takes inspiration from sources ranging from Teutonic history, Norse mythology, and Judeo-Christian dogma to alchemy, cosmogony, and stellar astronomy. By using symbols and references from poetry and literature, he invokes humanity’s historical and spiritual past.
In these new pieces, Kiefer works with palm fronds, ferns, dresses, ceramic ladders, golden seeds, and shards of glass on surfaces that resemble landscapes of the earth’s early years. Blackened and brittle, or gilded and growing, these plants are presented at various stages of their cycles of life, death and re-birth. Small linen dresses float amongst the paint and foliage, bringing a human presence to these terrestrial environments. Textures replicating ash and ruptured earth evoke the geological dynamism of a primordial planetary surface.
Themes of mortality, contrasted with humanity’s epic search for the secret of eternal life, are also important in Kiefer’s work. The tragic Greek mythological figure Leander and the Babylonian hero Gilgamesh figure prominently in Kiefer’s newest works on paper. Leander, who loses his life while swimming to meet his lover across the sea, stands in contrast to Gilgamesh, whose distressed reaction to his companion’s death takes the form of a quest for immortality.
Anselm Kiefer has made a new sculpture for the gallery’s annex space at the corner of via della Lungara. A celestial orb rests on the shoulders of the life-size sculptural figure, a new character in Kiefer’s group of “Women of Antiquity”. The orb, made of iron, contains gold and silver spheres that represent the sun and moon in orbit around planet Earth. Kiefer’s interest in women from ancient times highlights the remarkable strength, passion, power and dedication that females have brought to the realms of human knowledge, science and history.
Galleria Lorcan O’Neill Roma has published a book of Anselm Kiefer’s works on paper on the occasion of the artist’s exhibition in Rome. The full-color book reproduces 33 gouaches that touch on all of the main themes in Anselm Kiefer’s work, and is accompanied by a rare text written by the artist.
Anselm Kiefer (Born in Donaueschingen, 1945) has had solo shows in major international collections, including MoMA, New York (1987), Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin (1991), The Metropolitan Museum, New York (1998), Royal Academy, London (2001), Fort Worth Museum of Art, Fort Worth (2005) and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2006), Guggenheim Museum Bilbao (2007).
For more information, or for images, please contact Annette Lyman or Laurita Parrilla:
tel: +39 06 6889 2980 / email: annette@lorcanoneill.com
or laurita@lorcanoneill.com
Image: ANSELM KIEFER, Die Ordnung der Engel, 2010
Paint, clay, ash, and charcoal on board with iron, resin ferns and cotton and linen dresses, 280 x 140 cm
Courtesy Galleria Lorcan O’Neill Roma
Openin 14 May, 2010, 18.30
Galleria Lorcan O'Neill
via Orti d'Alibert, 1 Roma
orario: lun-ven 12-20; Sabato 14-20
ingresso libero