© Anselm Kiefer

The relationship between landscape and national identity is explored by German artist Anselm Kiefer.

Born during the last days of the Second World War, Kiefer has repeatedly engaged with the scars left by Nazism on the German imagination. His paintings, sculptures, photo-collages and works on paper are rooted in Germany’s rich cultural heritage, making reference to the same artists, writers and mythological figures appropriated by Nazi propagandists.

Kiefer is particularly alert to the iconic power of landscape. During the nineteenth century, German writers and artists invested forests, lakes and mountains with a symbolic majesty. This romantic vision, in which the German soil was established as sacred and unique, became an essential part of German nationalism. In Kiefer’s own landscapes, however, sublime grandeur is horrifically overshadowed by a legacy of genocide and war. Ways of Worldly Wisdom – Arminius’ Battle (1978) explores the myth-making that surrounds a legendary battle in the Teutoburg forest when three Roman legions were ambushed by a Germanic tribe. The philosophers, poets and politicians who have glorified this archetypal moment of German military prowess are themselves entwined in a labyrinthine forest with a terrible conflagration at its heart.

Let a Thousand Flowers Bloom (2000) belongs to a group of recent works taking the Chinese Revolution as their subject. The title is inspired by one of Chairman Mao’s most famous speeches, which ushered in a period of greater cultural openness. Kiefer captures the seductive power of the dictator’s rhetoric, while poignantly adding dried roses and tangled brambles to suggest the fading dreams and grim reality of totalitarian rule.

Anselm Kiefer was born in 1945 in Donaueschingen, Germany. He lives and works in France and Germany.

Text written by Sean Rainbird and Simon Bolitho