ANSELM KIEFER – PAINTING – BIBLIOTHÈQUE NATIONALE DE FRANCE – PARIS
►►►►►
I am biased. Anselm Kiefer is one of my very favorite artists and books are one of my passions. So an exhibition of Anselm Kiefer on books, …
The show is small, but manages to be monumental within the remit of bookshelves and library walls. The books are sketches, works in progress, and works of art. The mon
umentality comes as much from the accumulation of the “drawing books” and from the large size sculptures and paintings displayed in alcoves around the room.
“Drawing books” deserves a bit of a qualification: not your usual A3 black, thick paper pad, but sculpture size objects, with 10-15 pages thick like a a painting, and effectively each page a painting.
The narration found in the pages recalls the important themes in Kiefer’s work—flowers and branches, nature without life, landscape, words, and meaning: history, kabbale, mythology, war and memory. Books but some impossible to read, or even to turn pages: objects, sculptures.
It is one room, and I wish I could study there...
http://www.bnf.fr/m/fr/m_actualites/m_anx_expos/f.kiefer_alchimie.html
