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Lot Essay
"If you have a very big idea, a big theme, you need a small format. If you represent a big thing on a big scale then it quickly becomes ridiculous, pathetic." (Kiefer as quoted by B. Cavaliere, Anslem Kiefer: Works on Paper in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1998, New York, p. 53).
These delightful watercolors depicting the fields and forests of the German countryside are outstanding examples of Anselm Kiefer's skill as an artist and also the versatility of his oeuvre. During this period of his career, works of this kind form a central part of the discussion Kiefer was having about the nature of German identity and by working in this particular scale, he is focusing on the intimate details of his own exploration into the history of German artistic traditions. By choosing to focus his attention on the topography of the low rolling Odenwald range of mountains near Buchen in southern Germany, Kiefer is also introducing intensely personal references to the landscape of his childhood when the artist had first learnt to paint with watercolors. The lyrical nature of these works - the constantly shifting subtle beauty of the delicate palette of contrasting warm and cool tones combined with the bleak and ominous mountains and forests in the distance recalls the duality of the nature of German identity that was Kiefer's concern throughout much of his career. He particularly embraced the immediacy that the medium of watercolor offered him, commenting "with watercolor you cannot work by levels, you do one level and that's it. You do more and it becomes a failure" (B. Cavaliere, Anslem Kiefer: Works on Paper in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1998, p. 10). Both literally and conceptually, Kiefer's works on paper are lighter than his paintings, but this does not make them any less powerful. The intimacy of both the size and medium serve only to intensify the supremacy of Kiefer's ability to depict the power of German history and myth.
These delightful watercolors depicting the fields and forests of the German countryside are outstanding examples of Anselm Kiefer's skill as an artist and also the versatility of his oeuvre. During this period of his career, works of this kind form a central part of the discussion Kiefer was having about the nature of German identity and by working in this particular scale, he is focusing on the intimate details of his own exploration into the history of German artistic traditions. By choosing to focus his attention on the topography of the low rolling Odenwald range of mountains near Buchen in southern Germany, Kiefer is also introducing intensely personal references to the landscape of his childhood when the artist had first learnt to paint with watercolors. The lyrical nature of these works - the constantly shifting subtle beauty of the delicate palette of contrasting warm and cool tones combined with the bleak and ominous mountains and forests in the distance recalls the duality of the nature of German identity that was Kiefer's concern throughout much of his career. He particularly embraced the immediacy that the medium of watercolor offered him, commenting "with watercolor you cannot work by levels, you do one level and that's it. You do more and it becomes a failure" (B. Cavaliere, Anslem Kiefer: Works on Paper in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1998, p. 10). Both literally and conceptually, Kiefer's works on paper are lighter than his paintings, but this does not make them any less powerful. The intimacy of both the size and medium serve only to intensify the supremacy of Kiefer's ability to depict the power of German history and myth.