Description
The only visual artist to have won the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, Anselm Kiefer is a profoundly literary painter. In these conversations, Kiefer describes how the central materials of his art-lead, sand, water, fire, ashes, plants, clothing, oil paint, watercolor, and ink-influence the act of creation. No less decisive are his intellectual and artistic touchstones: the sixteenth-century Jewish mystic Isaac Luria, the German Romantic poet Novalis, Ingeborg Bachmann, Paul Celan, Martin Heidegger, Marcel Proust, Adalbert Stifter, the operas of Richard Wagner, the Catholic liturgy, and the innovative theater director and artist Tadeusz Kantor. Kiefer and Dermutz discuss all of these influential thinkers, as well as Kiefer's own status as a controversial figure. His relentless examination of German history, the themes of guilt, suffering, communal memory, and the seductions of destruction have earned him equal amounts of criticism and praise. The conversations in this book offer a rare insight into the mind of a gifted creator, appealing to artists, critics, art historians, cultural journalists, and anyone interested in the visual arts and the literature and history of the twentieth century.
About the Author
Anselm Kiefer is a painter, sculptor, and installation artist living and working in France. His works have been exhibited at MoMA, the San Francisco Museum of Art, the Guggenheim, and the Louvre, among many others. Klaus Dermutz, born in Judenburg, Austria, in 1960, studied theology, philosophy, and sociology in Graz and Berlin, and is the author of numerous books. Tess Lewis's numerous translations from French and German include works by Peter Handke, Jean-Luc Benoziglio, Klaus Merz, Hans Magnus Enzensberger, and Pascal Bruckner.
Reviews
"This tome is an essential read that offers a rare access into a mind of a great artist - an artist that transcends confines, labels and defies classifications - and one anyone remotely interested in visual arts and the aftermath of the twentieth century would benefit from." * Scene Point Blank *
Book Information
ISBN 9781803090382
Author Anselm Kiefer
Format Paperback
Page Count 374
Imprint Seagull Books London Ltd
Publisher Seagull Books London Ltd
Weight(grams) 386g
Dimensions(mm) 202mm * 129mm * 21mm