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27/10/2001

Anselm Kiefer

Fondation Beyeler, Basel

"I think vertically, and Fascism was one vertical plane. Yet I see all these strata. I tell stories in my works in order to show what lies behind the story. I make a hole and I go through it." Anselm Kiefer

Anselm Kiefer's exhibition at the Fondation Beyeler will be his first solo show of paintings in a German-speaking country for 10 years and will therefore be a important milestone in his career as well as a major art historical event.

Kiefer's oeuvre is made up of a large number of thematically distinct groups of works that deal with fundamental experiences in human life such as nature and culture, myth and history. In the past his exhibitions have concentrated on the presentation of single cycles or on a retrospective selection of individual works. By contrast, the exhibition project at the Fondation Beyeler sets out to explore the central line of development in Kiefer's work from the beginning of his career up to the present day by means of four selected groups of works bringing together a total of 25 monumental paintings as well as 11 gouaches.

The exhibition opens with Kiefer's "Attic Paintings" from the early 1970s, which conjure up the mythological world of epic poems. These indoor structures are followed by his "Stone Halls" from the first half of the 1980s, which in some cases contain unmistakeable references to Fascist architecture. From there, the panorama broadens to Kiefer's "Archaic Architectures" of the 1990s (pyramids, brick constructions) before moving on to his most recent works, the "Cosmos and Star Paintings" he did in 1999 and 2000.

These four way stations chart Kiefer's development from his intimate, introverted "Attic Paintings" to the infinity of the universe or, in a certain way, from microcosm to macrocosm, before ultimately returning to earth

with his monumental flower seed paintings, which conjure up associations with galaxies in a white firmament. As far back as the early 1960s, Anselm Kiefer, who was born in 1945, began to deal with the major theme of the interrelationship between history and culture. Partly because of its seemingly ambivalent pictorial language and ostensible proximity to the aesthetic motifs and content of National Socialism, his early work repeatedly aroused irritation and anger, but also affirmation and enthusiasm. The exhibition at the Fondation Beyeler will place his early work in a new and wider context, both thematically and artistically. It becomes clear that, here too, Kiefer's fundamental theme, i.e. cosmic genesis in the sense of a journey through space, time and cultures, reflect identities and materials. Motifs from the Jewish Kabbala have been thematised in his work just as much as have Mao, the Cultural Revolution and the mystical experiences of the Rosicrucians.

Since Kiefer left Germany in 1993 and moved to La Ribaute in Barjac at the foot of the Cévennes (Provence), he has created around his studio there an extensive system of greenhouses, archives, storerooms for materials and paintings, subterranean chambers and corridors, in which his works are housed. The project reflects Kiefer's architectonic cosmos and his need to create broader interrelationships and arrangements that correspond to the content of his works.

This concentration on Kiefer's architectonic cosmos is in keeping with the exhibition space available at the Fondation Beyeler. Since the museum's extension in 2000, it includes a very large room with natural lighting which, separated from the countryside by only a glass wall, seems predestined for the exhibition of Kiefer's monumental works.

As a kind of fifth station, a literary text by the writer Christoph Ransmayr and photographs by Thomas Flechtner in the catalogue document the extensive glass buildings, subterranean corridors and installations that Kiefer has created since 1993 on the extensive site surrounding his studio in Barjac. In the richly illustrated catalogue (Hatje Cantz Verlag, 112 pages), texts by Katharina Schmidt, Mark Rosenthal and Markus Brüderlin explore the individual stations from Kiefer's attic paintings to his star paintings.

Image: Your Age and my Age and the Age of the World, 1997, 470 x 900 cm Courtesy Anthony d'Offay Gallery, London

The Anselm Kiefer exibition will be accombined by an interesting programme of events. Advance booking is necessary for all of them.
For information and bookings please phone +41(0)61 645 97 20

Tuesday, 4 December 2001, 6.45 p.m. - 8 p.m.
Prominent Experts
"The Unborn or Anselm Kiefer's Tracts of the Heavens" Reading by the author Christoph Ransmayr

Tuesday, 8 January 2002, 6.45 p.m. - 8 p.m.
"Better the Devil on the Wall than in the Heart!"
Lecture by Prof. Bazon Brock Generalist, Wuppertal/Germany

Tuesday, 5 February 2002, 6.45 p.m. - 8 p.m.
Special Focus
Reading of works by Ingeborg Bachmann in co-operation with the Theater Basel

Friday, 18 January 2002
Basel Museums Night
"Tour of the Seven Heavenly Palaces" Short readings and a stage performance

Fondation Beyeler Baselstrasse 101, CH-4125 Riehen Basel

Opening hours for the museum
10 am - 6 pm daily
10 am - 8 pm on Wednesdays

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