.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
‘Kiefer’s art is the unique expression of a highly personal situation prompted by his interests and consciousness and yielding images in which historic awareness, metaphysical longings and the notion of human subordinacy to existence constitute the material of the predominating question: how to render this human experience into image’
(W. Beeren, quoted in ‘Anselm Kiefer: Recuperation of History,’ in Anselm Kiefer: Bilder 1986-1980, exh. cat., Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 1986-1987, p. 8).
A striking example of Anselm Kiefer’s investigation of the complex structure of myth, history and identity, Brünhilde presents us with the ethereal figure of the eponymous valkyrie of Teutonic mythology. A monumental multi-media work fusing painting, collage and woodcut, this is one of approximately only one hundred works in Kiefer’s oeuvre that incorporates the woodcut, the only printmaking technique Kiefer uses. Richard Wagner’s renowned operatic cycle The Ring and the tragic fate of its protagonists Brünhilde and Siegfried specifically form the backdrop for this work. In this timeless story of conflict between ideals and reality, Brünhilde sacrifices herself after the death of the hero Siegfried by riding her hose into burning blames. This dramatic gesture of self-sacrifice, however, ignites another fire in the heavens and ultimately ends the rule of the gods. Kiefer explores the tragedy of Brünhilde with sweeping expressive brushstrokes, painting her face and long hair as they are consumed by the flames of her own destruction. While Kiefer’s painterly intervention makes the below woodcut nearly illegible, closer consideration reveals the outlines of Brünhilde’s horse, Grane, in mist of a primeval scorched landscape – notably the same image he later uses for variations of the woodcut Brünnhilde/Grane, 1980-83, examples of which are prominently housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
The motif of Brünhilde, as the Ring of the Nibelungen in general, is a reoccurring theme in Kiefer’s oeuvre since the 1970s. An important precedents in his oeuvre for the present work is thereby notably his Attic series, in which the wood-lined attic room of his studio became a stage for Kiefer to play out history, religion and mythology with multivalent references to, amongst others, Wagner’s Ring cycle. Alongside works from the Attic series such as The Sorrow of the Nibelungen (Der Nibelungen Leid), 1973 (Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, USA), or Nothung, 1973 (Musuem Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam), Kiefer also explored the theme in a series of photographic works, as demonstrated by Untitled (Siegfried Forgets Brünhilde), 1975–80 (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) or Siegfried's Difficult Way to Brünhilde, ca. 1980 (Museum of Modern Art, New York). With an acute awareness of the political and mythological history that this poignant tragedy represents, Kiefer presents us with a powerful painterly investigation on the universal themes of love, idealism and sacrifice. As Wim Beeren aptly observes, ‘Kiefer’s art is the unique expression of a highly personal situation prompted by his interests and consciousness and yielding images in which historic awareness, metaphysical longings and the notion of human subordinacy to existence constitute the material of the predominating question: how to render this human experience into image’ (W. Beeren, quoted in ‘Anselm Kiefer: Recuperation of History,’ Anselm Kiefer: Bilder 1986-1980, exh. cat., Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 1986-1987, p. 8)
(W. Beeren, quoted in ‘Anselm Kiefer: Recuperation of History,’ in Anselm Kiefer: Bilder 1986-1980, exh. cat., Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 1986-1987, p. 8).
A striking example of Anselm Kiefer’s investigation of the complex structure of myth, history and identity, Brünhilde presents us with the ethereal figure of the eponymous valkyrie of Teutonic mythology. A monumental multi-media work fusing painting, collage and woodcut, this is one of approximately only one hundred works in Kiefer’s oeuvre that incorporates the woodcut, the only printmaking technique Kiefer uses. Richard Wagner’s renowned operatic cycle The Ring and the tragic fate of its protagonists Brünhilde and Siegfried specifically form the backdrop for this work. In this timeless story of conflict between ideals and reality, Brünhilde sacrifices herself after the death of the hero Siegfried by riding her hose into burning blames. This dramatic gesture of self-sacrifice, however, ignites another fire in the heavens and ultimately ends the rule of the gods. Kiefer explores the tragedy of Brünhilde with sweeping expressive brushstrokes, painting her face and long hair as they are consumed by the flames of her own destruction. While Kiefer’s painterly intervention makes the below woodcut nearly illegible, closer consideration reveals the outlines of Brünhilde’s horse, Grane, in mist of a primeval scorched landscape – notably the same image he later uses for variations of the woodcut Brünnhilde/Grane, 1980-83, examples of which are prominently housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
The motif of Brünhilde, as the Ring of the Nibelungen in general, is a reoccurring theme in Kiefer’s oeuvre since the 1970s. An important precedents in his oeuvre for the present work is thereby notably his Attic series, in which the wood-lined attic room of his studio became a stage for Kiefer to play out history, religion and mythology with multivalent references to, amongst others, Wagner’s Ring cycle. Alongside works from the Attic series such as The Sorrow of the Nibelungen (Der Nibelungen Leid), 1973 (Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, USA), or Nothung, 1973 (Musuem Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam), Kiefer also explored the theme in a series of photographic works, as demonstrated by Untitled (Siegfried Forgets Brünhilde), 1975–80 (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) or Siegfried's Difficult Way to Brünhilde, ca. 1980 (Museum of Modern Art, New York). With an acute awareness of the political and mythological history that this poignant tragedy represents, Kiefer presents us with a powerful painterly investigation on the universal themes of love, idealism and sacrifice. As Wim Beeren aptly observes, ‘Kiefer’s art is the unique expression of a highly personal situation prompted by his interests and consciousness and yielding images in which historic awareness, metaphysical longings and the notion of human subordinacy to existence constitute the material of the predominating question: how to render this human experience into image’ (W. Beeren, quoted in ‘Anselm Kiefer: Recuperation of History,’ Anselm Kiefer: Bilder 1986-1980, exh. cat., Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 1986-1987, p. 8)