In the Hermitage opens exhibition of Anselm Kiefer
ARTinvestment.RU   24 мая 2017

The exhibition, entitled "Anselm Kiefer — of Velimir Khlebnikov. The fate of Nations" opened in the Nicholas hall of the Winter Palace on 30 may and runs until early September

the State Hermitage Museum
30 may — on 3 September 2017
the Winter Palace, the Nicholas hall

In the framework of the joint project of the Hermitage and the gallery of Thaddeus Ropak (Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, London / Paris / Salzburg) will be shown around 30 new works, specially created by Anselm Kiefer for the exhibition.

Anselm Kiefer — artist, prone to deep and multifaceted intellectual reflection. In his work he addresses the themes of history, religion, literature, philosophy, images of memory and heritage. The source of inspiration for Kiefer — world culture, in a broad slice of German history, religious mysticism, ancient poetry, Mesopotamian myths.

Anselm Kiefer was born in the small German town of Donaueschingen in 1945, two months before the end of the Second world war. Exploring the theme of silencing the guilt and pain that paralyzed his generation, Kiefer, along with George Baselice and Gerhard Richter, was one of the first artists, in their works openly and boldly addressed the topics of Nazism and the Holocaust. In 1980, Kiefer was among the artists representing Germany at the Venice Biennale. In the ensuing years, his solo exhibitions were held at the Kunsthalle in düsseldorf, Museum of modern art in new-Йорке, the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, the Royal Academy in London, the Grand-Пале and the Centre Pompidou in Paris. Anselm Kiefer — is the only living artists whose work is included in the permanent collection of the Louvre.

According to the German philosopher Peter Sloterdijk: "the art of Anselm Kiefer has its own special space, as ravnoudalenie from the horrific and decorative", — two constants of modern art. His paintings — large-scale, multi-layered, three-dimensional — mark the revival of the genre of historical painting with the key issues of memory and cultural myth. In a bold vangogovskie manner of paint on the canvases of Anselm Kiefer mixed with dust, earth, clay, rusty metal, straw, dried flowers. In 1985, the artist bought the dilapidated roof of the Cologne Cathedral: lead sheets became pages of numerous books that determined the whole liperovsky iconography.

Acquaintance with Anselm Kiefer's works require the viewer's willingness to meditation, mystical empathy, dive into a whirlpool of subtle intellectual ideas.

In 2016, Anselm Kiefer, inspired by a visit to St. Petersburg, created specifically for the Hermitage's new exhibition project. In the equipped for the exhibition space, the Nikolaevsky hall of the Keefer is represented by the canvases devoted to the Russian poet-футуристу, the experimenter word creation of Velimir Khlebnikov (1885-1922).

Poetic works often forKiefer's starting point: "I think in pictures. Poems help me in this. They are like beacons. I swim to them, from one to another. Without them —, I was gone. They are the backbone, which in the vastness of space focuses".

One of the Central to Velimir Khlebnikov, the idea of infinite looping fatal military clashes taking place on the water and land time in 317 years, Kiefer becomes the basis for reflection on the themes of war and peace, of the fragility and finiteness of all human aspirations, of the merciless rock. At the same time, the exhibition "Anselm Kiefer — Velimir Khlebnikov" — is a picturesque ode to the sad beauty of rusting ships, once communicated a message of fear, but now abandoned by their creators at the very edge of the earth.

the exhibition is curated by — Dmitry Ozerkov, head of contemporary art Department, State Hermitage, candidate of philosophical Sciences, and Nina Danilova, Junior researcher of Department of contemporary art at the Hermitage.

the exhibition is accompanied By academic illustrated catalogue in Russian and English languages.

Source: hermitagemuseum.org