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Anselm Kiefer is a German painter and sculptor. He studied with Peter Dreher and Horst Antes at the end of the 1960s. His works incorporate materials such as straw, ash, clay, lead, and shellac. The poems of Paul Celan have played a role in developing Kiefer's themes of German history and the horrors of the Holocaust, as have the spiritual concepts of Kabbalah.
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culture · German painter and sculptor (born 1945) · painter · sculptor · illustrator · graphic artist · photographer · visual artist · artist · also Anselm Kiefer, Anselm Keifer, Kiefer
Born 8 March 1945 · Q170344
57 published statements · 0 followers
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used to hard reactions. When I first thought of the work I didn
85%The GuardianSource
“but I was always critical. My brother was in the Communist party and was invited to spend time in China and was absolutely seduced. He is much more intelligent than me, but he came back saying”
“used to hard reactions. When I first thought of the work I didn”
Yahoo: The art of Anselm Kiefer: "Becoming the Sea"
Kiefer created a site-specific installation entitled The Women Alchemists in Milan's Sala delle Cariatidi as part of the cultural showcase of the 2026 Winter Olympics
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Observer: At SLAM, Anselm Kiefer’s Material Transformations
WSLS 10: A new exhibition highlights how German artist Anselm Kiefer was inspired by Vincent van Gogh
Yahoo: Anselm Kiefer: Early Works: Erotics, Nazis and apocalypse
Artnet: Two Amsterdam Museums Join Forces for a Sprawling Anselm Kiefer Exhibition
The Financial Times: Anselm Kiefer, Palazzo Strozzi review — rebellious angels and radiation-paintings mark a return to form
The Art Newspaper: Anselm Kiefer awarded Queen Sonja Lifetime Achievement Award for printmaking
Awarded Knight Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (2023).
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Awarded Honorary Member of the Brera Academy of Fine Arts (2020).
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Awarded honorary doctor of the University of Freiburg (2017).
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Miami Herald: Anselm Kiefer’s dark world descends on South Florida — with rays of hope
The Met Breuer presented Provocations: Anselm Kiefer at The Met Breuer, an exhibit of works that spanned his career
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Kiefer was ranked one of the richest 1,001 individuals and families in Germany by the monthly business publication Manager Magazin
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Hyperallergic: Anselm Kiefer's Heady and Heavy-Handed Behemoths
The Albertina in Vienna dedicated an exhibition to his woodcuts, showing 35 made between 1977 and 2015, with an accompanying catalogue
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The Centre Pompidou, the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, and the Museum der bildenden Künste in Leipzig hosted a retrospective exhibition in honor of Kiefer's 70th birthday
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The Foundation landscaped the area surrounding this building in order to present long-term installations of outdoor sculpture
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Hyperallergic: Flowers of Retrenchment: Anselm Kiefer's Alternate History
The Art Gallery of Hamilton presented some of his paintings
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Awarded Berliner Bär (2011).
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Won Leo-Baeck-Medal (2011).
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Kiefer was appointed to the chair of creativity in art at the Collège de France
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The piece was installed at the Art Gallery of Ontario museum in Toronto, where Kiefer created eight new panels specifically for the AGO's exhibition of this work
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Kiefer mounted two exhibitions at the White Cube gallery in London
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For the first time in the Balearic Islands, at the Es Baluard museum in Palma de Mallorca
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The Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibited Broken Flowers and Grass: Nature and Landscape in the Drawings of Anselm Kiefer, displaying Kiefer’s landscape paintings
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Awarded Peace Prize of the German Publishers' and Booksellers' Association (2008).
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Kiefer was awarded the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, given for the first time to a visual artist
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Kiefer installed Palmsonntag (Palm Sunday) (2006), a monumental palm tree and 36 steel-and-glass reliquary tablets in the auditorium-gym of the First Baptist Church of Los Angeles, an enormous Italian Romanesque edifice
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Kiefer became the first living artist to create a permanent site-specific installation in the museum since Georges Braque in 1953
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Became the first artist to be commissioned to install a permanent work at the Louvre, Paris, since Georges Braque some 50 years earlier
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The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao presented an extensive survey of recent work
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Kiefer was commissioned to create a huge site-specific installation of sculptures and paintings for the inaugural "Monumenta" at the Grand Palais, Paris
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Kiefer's exhibition, Velimir Chlebnikov, was first shown in a small studio near Barjac, then moved to White Cube in London, then finishing in the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Connecticut
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Awarded Austrian Decoration for Science and Art (2005).
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Awarded Officer's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (2005).
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Held his second exhibition in Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac's Salzburg location, Für Paul Celan which focused on Kiefer's preoccupation with the book, linking references to Germanic mythology with the poetry of Paul Celan,
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Held his first solo show at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Salzburg Villa Katz, Anselm Kiefer: Am Anfang dedicated to a series of new works, centered on the recurring themes of history and myths
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Awarded Praemium Imperiale (1999).
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The Japan Art Association awarded him the Praemium Imperiale for his lifetime achievements
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Established himself in Barjac, France, where he transformed his 35-hectare studio compound La Ribaute into a Gesamtkunstwerk
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After twenty years of working in the Odenwald, the artist left Germany to travel around the world—to India, Mexico, Japan, Thailand, Indonesia, Australia, and the United States
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Awarded Goslarer Kaiserring (1990).
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Kiefer was awarded the Wolf Prize
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Kiefer transformed a former brick factory in Höpfingen (also near Buchen) into an extensive artwork including numerous installations and sculptures
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“What interests me is the transformation, not the monument. I don't construct ruins, but I feel ruins are moments when things show themselves. A ruin is not a catastrophe. It is the moment when things can start again.”
Awarded Rome Prize of the German Academy Villa Massimo (1976).
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Kiefer moved to Hornbach (Walldürn) and established a studio
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Kiefer had his first solo exhibition, at Galerie am Kaiserplatz in Karlsruhe
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Kiefer began to design books
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At Galerie am Kaiserplatz, Karlsruhe, he presented his first solo exhibition "Besetzungen (Occupations)" with a series of photographs of controversial political actions
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His family moved to Ottersdorf, and he attended public school in Rastatt, graduating high school in 1965
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Born 1945-03-08.
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During an Atlantic sortie codenamed Rhine Exercise
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