Heroic Symbols 1969 by Anselm Kiefer

Anselm Kiefer’s Heroic Symbols photographs document a series of art ‘actions’, undertaken in 1969, which involved the artist performing the taboo Sieg Heil salute in private and public spaces in various European locations. Several hundred photographs were taken, but only some were developed at the time. Those that were printed were utilised for various purposes: they featured in Kiefer’s unique book projects made later that same year, provided motifs for large-scale paintings he produced in 1970, and were published as a photo-essay in the conceptual art magazine Interfunktionen in 1975. The photographs have since been reused by Kiefer for mixed media artworks and installations, and since 2007 he has enlarged many more photographs from the original negatives.

This In Focus examines Kiefer’s motivations for performing such a taboo gesture and analyses the difficult reception of the Sieg Heil ‘action’. It discusses the work in relation to the artist’s mentors and peers, particularly Joseph Beuys, and considers Kiefer’s performance as a reflection of the post-war German societal and psychological condition Vergangenheitsbewältigung (‘coming to terms with the past’).

Published in February 2016, the project is authored by Dr Christian Weikop (University of Edinburgh) and includes contributions from Dr Lara Day (Artsy, Berlin) and Dr Hannah Abdullah (Goethe-Institut, New York).

ISBN 978-1-84976-417-9