Anselm Kiefer

Born: 1945

Artist

Anselm Kiefer was born in Donaueschingen in southern Germany. In 1969, he presented his first individual exhibit, a series of self-portraits entitled “Besetzungen“ (Occupations), at the Galerie am Kaiserplatz in Karlsruhe.

As an artist he expresses himself by shaping massive works of art from materials such as dust, flower petals, ashes and roots in his factory hall studios. In the late 1980s and early 1990’s, he added mystical and mythological themes to his works.

He calls his works, many of which are inspired by mythology, “Bildkörper” (“picture bodies”), because with his typically untreated materials, he lends sculptured volume to the two-dimensionality of traditional painting. Most of his art work is centered around themes of German history and the horrors of the Holocaust. He has had many exhibits throughout the U.S.

Today Kiefer is one of the best known and successful as well as most disputed German artists of the post World War II era. Kiefer lives and works in Barjac, France.

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