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Kiefer, Anselm, 1980. Wege: markischer Sand. Oil, emulsion, shellac, sand and photograph (on projection paper) on canvas, 112 x 173 1/2 in. Saatchi Collection, London. Sourced from: |
- Anselm Kiefer was Born in 1945 in southern Germany, and lives/works in France since 1991.
- Much of his work reflects on historical references as shown through, on and with the landscape, he can be positioned as a romantic neo-expressionist.
- Major one-person shows world-wide (here in Australia in 2006 at the Gallery of New South Wales) including at the Guggenhiem, Bilbao; the Grand Palais, Paris; The Met, New York; and the Tate Gallery, London.
My research so far has identified two interesting influences and associated working methodologies:
Influence 1 –
Kiefer maintains a strong link to his mentor Beuys – in that he shares a genuine and abiding interest the ‘natural’ – both in natural objects and natures processes.
Kiefer maintains a strong link to his mentor Beuys – in that he shares a genuine and abiding interest the ‘natural’ – both in natural objects and natures processes.
“…and the grass will cover your cities ”- a phrase often inscribed in his artworks, at once this could read as apocalyptic, or as referencing the enduring and perpetually reforming essence of life. This is where Kiefers art practice resides; in the messy middle-space, the sites of convergence and contradiction, creating spaces of and for multiple meanings and cross-reference.
Methodology 1–
Like a library of ephemera, of course such a concept is at once an oxymoronic yet desperately instinctual as a process, Kiefer constructs work spaces full of gathered and constructed detritus.
Like a library of ephemera, of course such a concept is at once an oxymoronic yet desperately instinctual as a process, Kiefer constructs work spaces full of gathered and constructed detritus.
à Of particular interest to me is the application of found things and semi-sculptural nature of many of his landscapes – such a practice confounds the traditional conventions of landscape art – and he uses this so powerfully…
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Aus dunklen Fichten flog ins blau der Aar.
2009.
Lead, photography, brambles, acrylic, oil, emulsion, ash and shellac on canvas in steel and glass frame
. 130 11/16 x 226 3/4 x 13 3/4 in.
Photo: Charles Duprat
. Source: www.whitecube.com/ artists/kiefer/ |
Influence 2 -
Kiefer imbues his natural worlds with further links to the relationships between ‘heavens’ and ‘earthly things’ – and between mystical creation and the creative process in art. This mystic rendering of processual life reflects his interest in the 16th century English philosopher and Rosicrucian mystic, Robert Fludd M.D . The thematic of forces - forces of creation, destruction, compulsion, motion, sequalea, and restitution – resonate as a deep recognition of art as processual, acted out, lived.
Kiefer imbues his natural worlds with further links to the relationships between ‘heavens’ and ‘earthly things’ – and between mystical creation and the creative process in art. This mystic rendering of processual life reflects his interest in the 16th century English philosopher and Rosicrucian mystic, Robert Fludd M.D . The thematic of forces - forces of creation, destruction, compulsion, motion, sequalea, and restitution – resonate as a deep recognition of art as processual, acted out, lived.
Methodology 2 –
The constant and prolific creative practice Kiefer engages in is said to involve multiple ongoing projects, a stream that cuts across conceptual space (he works on multiple series at a time and cross-references but maintains their distinct core foci) cuts across temporal zones (disbanded projects are stored and ‘mined’ or recycled later for physical media and/or conceptual platforms for extension of new works) cuts across media (in the construction of a series – at first triptych of oils are stained with shellac – extended with assembleges – tangenting into a new form, and so on) and finally cuts across traditional borders (traditions within art - as in his subversion of 'traditions' in the landscape genre... and in the overlaying and interweaving of traditional narratives, in his work that constructs a dual reality of theFall of Troy and World War II)
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Die Nachricht vom Fall Trojas,
2006
. Mixed media
, 110 1/4 x 299 3/16 in. |
This work, Die Nachricht vom Fall Trojas demonstrates the strong Kiefers' strong draftsmenship. The horizon line and lines of trajectory...
The strong directional lines that characterise Kiefers paintings can be seen to act as paths to follow, both as the drawn and drawing in. This strength of line furthermore acts both perspectively and lyrically. As a perspective drafting device the lines work to form deep theatrical spaces and furthermore to give weight and interest to the folds and forms of the dirt and soil of the earth. This is accentuated by the commonly placed high setting of the horizon line. Lyrically or emotively the lines act to subjectify the viewer, who from first engagement becomes a part of the story - drawn in by the various linear paths traversing the visual plane, taking the position of 'down in the dirt' - an earth-dweller. Kiefers' treatment of the surface quality of the land and soil involves applications of paint and media in rich, thick textural layers.
Below is another example of Kiefers play with traversing lines of flight and horizons.
Further reading:
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| To the Unknown Painter (Dem unbekannten Maler) 1983 Oil, emulsion, woodcut, shellac, latex, and straw on canvas 9'2 in. square The Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh Sourced: http://www.artchive.com/artchive/K/kiefer/kiefer.jpg.html |
Great (critical) article @ artcritical.com by David Cohen “The Irony and the Ecstacy” – critique of the 2009 Gagosian Gallery exhibition of Kiefers works and the essay on it by Bloom.
Article in brief:
“It is easy for artist and viewer alike simply to wallow in all this gorgeous texture. These earthy, charred, rusting swamps of primordial chaos are a kind of post-apocalyptic lily pond. Underneath all his heady metaphysics, Kiefer is a supremely tasteful decorator…”
adding that,
“…as Gauguin said, nothing that is pretty can be beautiful, then, even more so, is this true of the sublime.”
…and finally,
“Kiefer is trading on an acutely post-war German frisson of guilty pleasure, of finding beauty where it should not be.”Fabulous account of the project - "In the beginning" directed and devised by Anselm Kiefer, working in collaboration with the composer and clarinetist Jörg Widmann, for the 20th anniversary of the Paris Opera Bastille. Article by Adrian Searle @ the Guardian online
History repeating: Anselm Kiefer goes back to the Beginning
Article in Brief:
"Part art installation, part opera, the artist's new project puts the Bible on stage. He explains to Adrian Searle why it holds lessons for us all"includes reflections of the artist:
"I am against the idea of the end, that everything culminates in paradise or judgement," Kiefer told me when we met in his studio in Le Marais the morning after the premiere. "The communists in East Germany also thought history would one day come to an end." History is cyclical, he suggests, "but we need some illusions to survive".Particularly interesting:
Kiefer has a fondness for metaphors, something that makes itself felt in the geological crusts of his paintings. "Sometimes", he announces, "I think people are like stones. When we look for life on Mars we might not recognise it when we find it." He discussed these ideas a lot with Joseph Beuys, he tells me. Beuys was Kiefer's teacher, someone whom Kiefer regards as the most important postwar German artist. But they disagreed on some things. " Beuys thought mankind was the crown of creation," he says. "I don't."Further Links:
My Eugene Carchesio
I first came upon Carchesios' work when I had an hour to fill in between meetings in West End, Brisbane a decade ago. A vast showing of his work was on display in the QAG - and I knew immediately I had stumbled on a new obsession - I should I say I felt that I had met a fellow obsessive. To look at his work I felt I was looking into a secret mind scape made visible - the intimate publicly exposed. This is why perhaps I have such trouble with essays and articles pointing to Carchesio as a 'reclusive' 'quite' artist (see: ), what? Can they be serious, there are whole philosophies detailed intricately and disseminated with clarity in all his works. These are not the bold and brash 'bienniel'- caricatures, these are certainly not 'new media'-explicit - and for that they are to me more deeply profound and more explicitly intimate and outspoken. Perhaps it is all in the reading after all.
Eugene Carchesio is a self-taught, Brisbane-based artist who works in collage, drawing, watercolour and sound. Carchesio’s materials are usually modest and collected from everyday life. His works have a poetic presence, and their intimate scale and serial nature invite quiet wonder and private contemplation.
more info > brief timeline of work(ing life) - this outlines the phenomenal output and ongoing success of this artist who has retained a sense of integrity and continuity of vision over the decades.
Art Guide (digital) article by Hiedi Maier ... this article whilst exploring in depth the role of artist as curator, also gives insight into the core conceptual frames of Carchesios own works. Here is an excerpt of the article:
"With a career spanning more than 25 years, Brisbane artist Eugene Carchesio has established himself as one of Australia’s most fascinating and thought provoking contemporary artists. Gordon Craig, curator of Collections and Exhibitions at the QUT Art Museum, describes him as “a man who walks around collecting images with his subconscious.”
With this in mind, Carchesio was a natural choice as someone to curate a show from the vast and diverse QUT collection. Every artist reveals something of themselves in their responses to the works of others,
and it is this, in large part, that makes the resulting exhibition, Point of View: Eugene Carchesio Explores the Collection, such a compelling show."
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187 works for the People’s Republic of Spiritual Revolution (detail), 1975-90, watercolour, pencil,
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Eugene Carchesio, Family (detail), 2004, 21 watercolours, 29.5 x 21cm (each). Private Collection. |
artmonthly: (if you have/can access the informit database - check this out).
This article presents a fascinating account of the 'major survey' exhibition "Someone's Universe: The Art of Eugene Carchesio" held in 2009 by the Queensland Art Gallery. Whilst the main focus of this review seems to be the authors displeasure with the curatorial discretion displayed in choices to downplay the interconnectivity of Carchesio's audio and performance art practices in favour of his "Big A- Art products" (a fair and reasonable challenge) this essay does provide a wholly celebratory and deeply sensitive account of the near 30 years worth of delights Carchesio has disseminated throughout (t)his world.
Pestorius, David. Someone's Universe: The Art of Eugene Carchesio [online]. Art Monthly Australia, No. 217, Mar 2009: 11-14. Availability:<http://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=738040025904537;res=IELHSS> ISSN: 1033-4025.
As mentioned above, Carchesios' work involves serious investigations into sound art also, for a brief overview of this manifestation of his work pracitce or 'career' (DNE and various alternate outputs) here is an interview and overview @ CYCLIC DEFROST (Australia’s only specialist electronic music magazine, they cover independent electronic music, avant-rock, experimental sound art and leftfield hip hop.
***To listen in (and YES you really should, this is an experience) to his recently remastered DNE classic, 47 Songs Humans Shouldn't Sing individual tracks and/or alternatively download the album goto emusic.
I love that in listening to Eugenes audio-art, a greater sense of the structure that underpins the poetry of the everday in his visual arts is gleened.
Other Influences:
Peter Alwast -
I should/would not actually put this under influences yet I suppose, more just current interests - have only just come across this artist, but am really enjoying considering the installation ideas he offers. The work pictured below I have chosen particularly for the nice play on 'drawing lines' with wire and with light to truly integrate space and form.
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Peter Alwast, Trees,Waterfall, Back, 2010 http://www.graftongallery.nsw.gov.au/images/JADA2010/Full/Peter%20Alwast%20%20Trees%20Waterfall%20Back%202010.jpg |
Grafton Gallery Artist Profile Excerpt:
Trees, Waterfall, Back is a drawing that combines a variety of representational methods to explore the way differing signs are brought together, or held momentarily in the mind to form a perception of space.In a subtle reference to Warhol's shadow works and some of the late Hopper paintings, the corner of the studio space features as a real space and also as a metaphor for the frame. The indeterminacy of the space as something between the imaginary and tactile, is realized by working between a generated 3D virtual space and the process of drawing and mark-making.
Trees, Waterfall, Back is part of a body of work started in New York while in residency at the Green Street Studio last December 2009 to March this year.
Peter is scheduled to conduct an artist talk at Grafton Regional Gallery as part of the JADA by night program on Thursday 25 November at 5.30pm.Check out his drawing videos on his website
Art Review website article from 2009 overview of his exhibition 'mutable states'
Peter Alwast: mutable states (accessed 28 September, 2010)
Does this high achiever with a slew of awards have everything a young artist could want?
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| Peter Alwast, Working Like a Tiger (installation shot) 2003, mixed media, clear plastic walls with drawings and prints adhered to the surface, dimensions variable. Courtesy the artist and Gallery Barry Keldoulis, Sydney. Photograph Rod Bucholtz |
Peter Alwast has attracted attention since his graduation from Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, in 1997. In 1998, he was awarded the Anne & Gordon Samstag International Visual Arts Scholarship, and spent three and a half years living and studying towards a Masters in Fine Art at the Parsons School of Design in New York. In 1999, he had both a Professional Development Grant from the Australia Council and a Project Development Grant from Arts Queensland.
...or check this one out @ vimeo
Drawings (Thinking of going outside) veiwed October 20, 2010
Here is an interesting link talking up his recent success in winning the Qld Premiers New Media Art Award...
That’s a still from Alwast’s piece (via Gallery Barry Keldoulis). But he won the Queensland new media prize
The winning piece, Everything (see cover image), by Peter Alwast (it’s an acquisitive award so into the GOMA collection it goes) uses three large projections of what seem to be cut and spliced together clichés of digi-art animation. Shiny pipes, translucent shapes, clouds, mountains, CAD style building frames, lickable butterscotch cars, reflections into shiny domes to show off some projective geometry/linear algebra. Over the top runs a soundtrack that also seems to recycle the standards of collaged and cut-up sound, even down to the slightly manic sounding street preacher. (Subpsychotic street person rant = gritty urban equivalent of salt-of-the-earth charming peasant folk wisdom?) Overall, there’s an aura of slick and meaningless process, an empty consumption of surfaces that gets a bit creepy.
I just don’t agree at all.
It’s time-enabled painting. That’s three-dimensions – time plus the flat film on wall from three film projectors. A surreal mesh of images, in the three film frames, only heighten the sense of 3D. In the gallery notes, Alwast refers to shifting his gaze from PC monitor to window to phone to TV, and so on. And you get that in the film, the perspective seems to shift internally, so different subjects within the film move independently of one another.
It makes sense. We’re overloading on information. At the moment, for me, it’s Twitter, The Australian and the SMH, the New Yorker, Feedly, abstracts for a conference I’m heading to next week, a Christos Tsiolkas novel and the latest Quarterly Essay (on climate change and coal mining). There’s radio and TV, downloaded HBO series, DVDs, YouTube stars. And I don’t know about you, but I can’t go more than half an hour without checking my phone.
In a way, Alwast’s piece makes some sense of that mess of images. And while media artists are obsessed with technical challenges. Who can do this very macho bout of programming or gear tech or whatever, Alwast’s gone and observed something quite real and quite powerful. It’s a way of seeing the world. Art, I guess.
My Fairweather
...always and all-ways... Fairweather is what bore me into the world of art and imagining... raised on Bribie Island, in the era when Fairweather was unrecognised outside the elite - but well-remembered amongst the rambling roses of the island, he seemed an enigma - not much has changed in my approach to this genius. I find his work, his presence almost, creeps up upon me in the strangest of times - to sit and offer a point of reference... not so much a stylistic influence - but rather a philosophical one - that with which we can live without...
