Depicting the horrors of The Holocaust

March 8, On This Day

This artist has a spiritual connection with his materials

Born in Germany’s Black Forest just two months before the end of World War II (on March 8, 1945), Anselm Kiefer went on to become a prolific artist influenced deeply by the horrors of the Holocaust, as well as the spiritual concepts of Kabbalah. Kiefer very interestingly incorporates materials such as straw, ash, clay, lead, and shellac into his works, and values a ‘spiritual connection’ with these materials, ‘extracting the spirit that already lives within them’. He also transforms them with acid baths and physical blows with sticks and axes, among other processes.

His works are characterised by an unflinching willingness to confront his culture’s dark past, and unrealised potential, and often done on a large, confrontational scale well suited to the subjects. It is also characteristic of his work to find signatures and names of people of historical importance, legendary figures or historical places. All of these are encoded sigils through which Kiefer seeks to process the past; this has resulted in his work being linked with the movements New Symbolism and Neo–Expressionism.

Kiefer has lived and worked in France since 1992. Since 2008, he has lived and worked primarily in Paris. In 2018, he was awarded Austrian citizenship.