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Lot Essay
Anselm Kiefer's Phoenix, is a striking example of the artist's oeuvre, drawing together some of the most significant motifs of his work; mythology, flame and alchemic transformation, in a representation of hope and redemptive possibility. This work was painted in 1981, the year after Kiefer exhibited at the Venice Biennale and just as his international reputation began to soar, and like much of his body of work focusses on Germanic themes, whether in re-appropriating German folklore or in directly confronting the atrocities of Nazism and of the Second World War. Born at the denouement of National Socialism in 1945, Kiefer grew up in a Germany trying to come to terms with its recent history. As Theodor Adorno famously stated "After Auschwitz, to write a poem is barbaric" (T. Adorno, quoted in Anselm Kiefer: Heaven and Earth, exh. cat., Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas, 2005, p. 27); and the issue of creativity in the years after the war was one which Kiefer and his fellow German artists struggled to come to terms with. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Kiefer chose to engage with Germany's recent history and went on to produce some of the most challenging artwork of the German Post-war period.
The rising phoenix is an emblem of hope; from the wreckage of a past life, new life is born. This transformation and potential for what was destroyed to have life again was of great importance to Kiefer. In the context of post-war Germany, the goal of a fresh start was paramount. Kiefer did not approach this hope with the idea of starting with a clean slate however, unlike many of his contemporaries, Kiefer saw the value of having a new beginning which acknowledged its onus in the difficult history which had brought about the need for change. Throughout his artistic practice he expounded the idea of bringing the precious from the base. His frequent use of lead recalled the ancient alchemical experiments which transformed the base metal into pure gold. His works would also go on to incorporate rubble, dirt and sand, elevating these substances from their humble beginnings into something of beauty and renewed worth. This concept can be seen in Phoenix, as ash and flames give rise to new life and fresh hope.
The eponymous subject of Phoenix is rendered in luscious, loose impasto, with its unfurling wings sketched out in skeletal simplicity. The phoenix rises from flickering tongues of flame, which are sketched out delicately, and illuminate the center of the monumental canvas. Throughout Kiefer’s oeuvre flames are a recurrent motif, both a destructive and creative force. This was a duality which Kiefer explored in the book The Burning of the Rural District of Buchen (1974 – 75), as charred and destroyed canvases formed several of the pages of the codex. Fire for Kiefer was elemental; key to the transformative alchemical processes which fascinated him and inspired his working method. Ashes would often appear in his work as a component feature, enriching his surfaces, as what was once destroyed was given new life.
The importance of interaction with fire within mythology was also incredibly significant to Kiefer. In one of his early works, a Promethean self-portrait, Man in the Forest (1971), the artist holds aloft a flaming torch in a distinctly Germanic forest. Flame in this work is seen as both revelatory and threating, as the artist “illuminate[s] the forest in such a way that it could ignite... to bring the fire, like Prometheus” (A. Kiefer, quoted in Anselm Kiefer, exh. cat., Royal Academy of Arts, London, 2014 p.30). The raised torch is an image of Kiefer’s own artwork, which both revealed and threatened the status quo of life and art in Germany. His work was received with difficulty by his peers, perhaps too explicit, too revelatory.
Phoenix was painted in the same year as another great mythological work, Icarus – Brandenburg Sands, in which Icarus is seen as another iteration of the artist, this time with a palette substituting his head. He is to be found felled amongst Kiefer’s ubiquitous German fields, having flown too close the sun, his wings burned and flightless. Icarus and Man in the Forest both speak to the danger inherent to the revelatory creative impulse, and Phoenix is a continuation of this theme. The rise of the phoenix is halted by a foreboding overlaid framework of black bars. These bars pierce through the bird’s rising wings, preventing its ascent, holding it in the flickering tongues of flame. Phoenix seems to illustrate the situation faced both by the artist and the German people, whereby their new birth and creativity is held in its nascent phase by the framework of history.
When taken into the context of Kiefer’s overarching thematic inspiration, the subject of Phoenix is of great significance, suggesting the difficulty of cultural and spiritual rebirth for Germany following the horrors of Nazism. In much the same way as Icarus - Brandenburg Sands seems to suggest that the weight of Germany's past is too much to escape, Phoenix indicates that the destructive flames which had consumed so much of Germany's historical creativity, whether it be degenerative art or unacceptable literature, are inescapable for the German artist. Kiefer reframes this destruction in a new light as a place in which creativity may be found, and in which a new beginning must be forged.
The rising phoenix is an emblem of hope; from the wreckage of a past life, new life is born. This transformation and potential for what was destroyed to have life again was of great importance to Kiefer. In the context of post-war Germany, the goal of a fresh start was paramount. Kiefer did not approach this hope with the idea of starting with a clean slate however, unlike many of his contemporaries, Kiefer saw the value of having a new beginning which acknowledged its onus in the difficult history which had brought about the need for change. Throughout his artistic practice he expounded the idea of bringing the precious from the base. His frequent use of lead recalled the ancient alchemical experiments which transformed the base metal into pure gold. His works would also go on to incorporate rubble, dirt and sand, elevating these substances from their humble beginnings into something of beauty and renewed worth. This concept can be seen in Phoenix, as ash and flames give rise to new life and fresh hope.
The eponymous subject of Phoenix is rendered in luscious, loose impasto, with its unfurling wings sketched out in skeletal simplicity. The phoenix rises from flickering tongues of flame, which are sketched out delicately, and illuminate the center of the monumental canvas. Throughout Kiefer’s oeuvre flames are a recurrent motif, both a destructive and creative force. This was a duality which Kiefer explored in the book The Burning of the Rural District of Buchen (1974 – 75), as charred and destroyed canvases formed several of the pages of the codex. Fire for Kiefer was elemental; key to the transformative alchemical processes which fascinated him and inspired his working method. Ashes would often appear in his work as a component feature, enriching his surfaces, as what was once destroyed was given new life.
The importance of interaction with fire within mythology was also incredibly significant to Kiefer. In one of his early works, a Promethean self-portrait, Man in the Forest (1971), the artist holds aloft a flaming torch in a distinctly Germanic forest. Flame in this work is seen as both revelatory and threating, as the artist “illuminate[s] the forest in such a way that it could ignite... to bring the fire, like Prometheus” (A. Kiefer, quoted in Anselm Kiefer, exh. cat., Royal Academy of Arts, London, 2014 p.30). The raised torch is an image of Kiefer’s own artwork, which both revealed and threatened the status quo of life and art in Germany. His work was received with difficulty by his peers, perhaps too explicit, too revelatory.
Phoenix was painted in the same year as another great mythological work, Icarus – Brandenburg Sands, in which Icarus is seen as another iteration of the artist, this time with a palette substituting his head. He is to be found felled amongst Kiefer’s ubiquitous German fields, having flown too close the sun, his wings burned and flightless. Icarus and Man in the Forest both speak to the danger inherent to the revelatory creative impulse, and Phoenix is a continuation of this theme. The rise of the phoenix is halted by a foreboding overlaid framework of black bars. These bars pierce through the bird’s rising wings, preventing its ascent, holding it in the flickering tongues of flame. Phoenix seems to illustrate the situation faced both by the artist and the German people, whereby their new birth and creativity is held in its nascent phase by the framework of history.
When taken into the context of Kiefer’s overarching thematic inspiration, the subject of Phoenix is of great significance, suggesting the difficulty of cultural and spiritual rebirth for Germany following the horrors of Nazism. In much the same way as Icarus - Brandenburg Sands seems to suggest that the weight of Germany's past is too much to escape, Phoenix indicates that the destructive flames which had consumed so much of Germany's historical creativity, whether it be degenerative art or unacceptable literature, are inescapable for the German artist. Kiefer reframes this destruction in a new light as a place in which creativity may be found, and in which a new beginning must be forged.