Lot 41
  • 41

Anselm Kiefer

Estimate
350,000 - 450,000 GBP
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Description

  • Anselm Kiefer
  • In Quatuor Annos Patebo
  • titled
  • lead, oil, emulsion, acrylic, charcoal and plaster on canvas
  • 190 by 330 cm. 74 7/8 by 129 7/8 in.
  • Executed in 2004.

Provenance

Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris

Acquired from the above by the present owner in 2005

Condition

Colour: The colour in the catalogue illustration is fairly accurate, although the overall tonality is slightly brighter in the original. Condition: Please refer to the department for a professional condition report.
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Catalogue Note

Executed in 2004, In Quatuor Annos Patebo presents an intellectually complex composition in which Kiefer’s unusual working materials coalesce to produce a visual and symbolic blend of mythology, history, and language. In the conflation of temporal specificity and the spatial perspectives of sea and sky, Kiefer delves into mystical narratives as principally emphasised by the submarine-like vessel floating at the centre of the composition. Surrounded by a tempestuous seascape of dark currents, turbulent whitecaps, and rich materials that culminate into a primordial display of texture, this raft seems to navigate amidst the torments of humanity and is imbued with metaphorical significance. From the outline of the submarine, the viewer’s eye is directed towards a fulminant river passage that emerges as a compositional vanishing point leading directly to the top of the canvas where an inscription in Latin reads ‘In quatuor annos patebo’ (In four years I will appear). In a unique blending of Kiefer’s longstanding exploration of antique myth and history, the present work harbours profound and multivalent philosophical and emotional significance.

Kiefer’s submarine appears to ride swells and navigate waves reminiscent of the endless breaks in Gustave Courbet’s seascapes, while the artist’s archetypal use of lead acts as an homage to his teacher, the iconic German conceptualist Joseph Beuys, who created revolutionary sculpture using similarly symbolically charged materials. That the iconic submarine, which is a reoccurring symbol throughout Kiefer’s oeuvre, is made of lead in this work is of great significance: Kiefer frequently commented that this soft metal has a much stronger effect on him than any other material and has become itself a source of ideas. The unique metal also possesses certain qualities that make it a subject unto itself, as Danilo Eccher has commented: "Lead is for Kiefer, in keeping with alchemical tradition, the magic metal which preserves memory; which, with its own soft weight, creates a reduced, weary representation of the world in order to absorb the wounds in its wrinkled skin" (Danilo Eccher, ‘Anselm Kiefer: A Dark Soul’, in: Exh. Cat., Bologna, Galleria d'Arte Moderna di Bologna, Anselm Kiefer: Stelle Cadenti, 1999, p. 87).

Around the time the present work was created, Kiefer was deeply involved in a seminal cycle of paintings dedicated to the twentieth-century Russian futurist poet and scientist Velimir Chlebnikov. Famed for his esoteric mathematical calculations, Chlebnikov’s studies sought to explain the course of history, and akin to Kiefer, focused his attention on key historical episodes. For instance, studying the laws of time Chlebnikov predicted that every 317 years or a multiple thereof a climactic naval conflict would occur to significantly alter the path of Humankind. His observations were based on comparisons such as the Russian-Japanese war in 1904 breaking out 317 years after the Anglo-Spanish war at the end of the Sixteenth Century. The present work's inscription ‘In quatuor annos patebo’ can possibly be read as a reference to Chlebnikov’s prediction of naval warfare. The submarine as a modern-day metaphor for destruction thus relates the present work to the time dimensions of Chlebnikov's theoretical construct, and references a cycle within Kiefer’s oeuvre that powerfully focusses on warfare at sea.

In keeping with Kiefer’s idiosyncratic colour palette from this period, In Quatuor Annos Patebo is composed of deep swathes of brown and black rhythmically applied across the canvas. Punctuating splashes of yellow ochre create a luminous spectrum that alludes to the deconstruction of light in J.M.W. Turner’s works. Rich layers of paint, plaster, debris, and other earthly materials that reference the very subject of the painting introduce a sculptural level to Kiefer’s work, which has been aptly explicated by Grace Glueck: "A blending of paint and other materials like sand, rust, dirt and straw is worked up to create a gritty impasto, further toughened by deliberate exposure to the weather. The resulting seascapes give a sense of inexorable nature, perhaps symbolising the struggle of humanity against the relentless forces of time and an indifferent universe" (Grace Glueck, 'Paintings by Anselm Kiefer, Inspired by the Poet Velimir Chlebnikov', The New York Times, 16 June 2006, online).

Heaving with matter and suffused with a multiplicity of artistic, historic, and mythical associations, In Quatuor Annos Patebo delivers a monumental display of Kiefer's aesthetic forged from the evisceration of the past and symptomatic of the psychic affliction of warfare. Through the transformation of quotidian constituents into something of extreme metaphorical significance, the German artist here emphasises the transformative potential of matter to become an object of intensely evocative power.