Germany
Anselm Kiefer
said
What fascinates me about Duchamp is the idea of tearing down the wall between the art object and reality.
— In: "Anselm Kiefer and the Philosophy of Martin Heidegger" Matthew Biro, Cambridge University Press 1998, p. 304
Anselm Kiefer
German painter and sculptor (born 1945)
- Fame60.0
- Momentum10.0
- Germany rank#235
Source-basedFalling
- Fame60.0
- Momentum10.0
- Germany rank#235
- Artists rank#175
- Wikipedia27.4K
Born 1945 · age 81Germany
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Summary
Updated 2026-06-21
He paints Germany's unburied past — ash, lead, straw, the Holocaust — on canvases so large they force you to stand inside the reckoning.
Biography
About
Born in March 1945 as the war ended, Kiefer spent a formative year at 18 tracing Van Gogh's footsteps across the Low Countries and France, diary in hand. He studied under Peter Dreher and Horst Antes in the late '60s, then began building work that wouldn't look away: paintings and sculptures thick with straw, clay, shellac, materials that carry weight and decay. Paul Celan's poetry — especially "Death Fugue" — and the mystical structures of Kabbalah gave him a language for what couldn't be spoken directly. He encoded names, places, and historical figures into the surfaces, a method that aligne…
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Sourced, dated quotes from Anselm Kiefer
Anselm Kiefer
said
Kandinsky was connected with Die Brücke and the Blue Rider: they had a concept and created a reality.
— (1986) n.p.
Anselm Kiefer
said
I perceive existentialism as a necessity of decision. This is the essential aspect of existentialism and simultaneously the most subversive factor..
— (1986) n.p.
Anselm Kiefer
said
Perspective and Impressionism were tentative attempts to deal with the world of appearance because of a fear to look inside. Cubism is structure and order.
— (1986) n.p.
Anselm Kiefer
said
Mondrian began with his paintings of the seashore, with blue trees and the cathedral. These paintings were totally symbolist paintings..
— (1986) n.p.
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Momentum10.0
Historical24.4
Now attention30.0
Source confidence60.0
Completeness70.0
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