Anselm Kiefer, Explained
The SFMOMA is offering us an interesting view at Kiefer's work through an exhibition that runs through January 21, and an interactive program that reviews “four decades of art by Anselm Kiefer, including paintings, sculptures, books, and works on paper that reflect the artist’s career-long meditation on the relationship between heaven and earth.”
Kiefer has a particular way of embedding his own system of signs in his work, which is explored in a simple yet informative manner in the interactive program. The virtual curator reviews a sample of his work in the context of its "symbolic language" representing ritual, remembrance, and technology among others.
His views on technology caught my attention. The artist suggests "that communications technology fulfills the unifying role that state religion once did.” This couldn’t be more precise in the age of electronic information, a futuristic vision considering that this is interpreted out of a 1985 piece (Osiris and Isis).
Also below is a bizarre account of a recent MAC exhibition. Interesting to watch even if you don’t understand French, definitively worth the five minutes.
Anselm Kiefer – Interactive Program