There’s a new exhibition in town: Strozzi Palace welcomes the great Ansel Kiefer, German artist, born in 1945, who since his first works has addressed the question of post-war identity and then explored other themes: life, death, human existence. For his works, rich in literary and poetic references, he also draws inspiration from the pre-Socratic philosophers because, as he himself said, “they had already theorized that the world was made of small infinite particles”.
For Kiefer everything has a spirit, even rubble. “They are like the flower of a plant, they are the radiant pinnacle of an incessant metabolism, the beginning of a rebirth” similarly to the sunflowers present in his works, anchored to the ground yet always in movement and yearning for the sky.
The exhibition opens with the enormous painting created specifically for the Renaissance courtyard of Palazzo Strozzi. It’s about “The Fall of the Angels’, inspired by the work of Luca Giordano. Rebel angels expelled from Paradise, a theme that we find in “Luzifer”, a painting from which a gigantic airplane wing emerges, a human challenge to the force of gravity. Potential, brazen desire to oppose every limit and, at the same time, probability of failure, death and destruction.
What surprises and stuns the visitor are the large dimensions of his creations and their multi-materiality. Kiefer uses seeds, fabrics, plaster, plants, metals, leaves. An art which, due to its grandeur and physicality, well transmits the duality of human nature: matter and spirit, embodied by lead, heavy and serious, and gold, light and symbol of eternity.
Myths and the Bible are explored. The writings in Latin, English and German that cover the imposing works are very interesting. The artist moves driven by existential urgencies and a consistent ego. By superimposing matter upon matter, layers, figures and objects in relief, he reveals to us a marked “Horror vacui”, which we remember is also the title of one of his watercolors from 1980, exhibited at the MET in New York.
The desire to fill the empty space can be felt in the room of irradiated paintings. When you cross the threshold, you are assailed by amazement and oppression. On the walls and ceiling are sixty paintings which Kiefer, not satisfied with the results achieved, subjected to plutonium radiation with the intent of destroying or modifying them.
Two enormous mirrors have been positioned in the room parallel to the floor which amplify and multiply the vision, generating emotional abyss and disorientation. To prepare for his paintings, sculptures and photographs exhibited in Florence, we recommend reading Vincenzo Trione’s book, “Heavenly prologue. In Anselm Kiefer’s atelier“, recently published by Einaudi. It is a visit to the artist’s workshops, themselves works of art.
Another book to appropriate the principles that guide Kiefer is “Art will survive its ruins”, a collection of the lessons that the master gave at the College de France, between 2010 and 2011, as professor of artistic creation. We would also like to point out that on April 30th the film “Anselm” by Wim Wenders will be released in cinemas, which tells the life story of the German artist. Unmissable.
Anselm Kiefer Fallen Angels At Palazzo Strozzi from 22 March to 21 July 2024
