Anselm Kiefer

Sonnabend Gallery, New York
Private Collection, New York
Sale: Christie's, New York, Contemporary Art, 20 May 1999, Lot 134
Galerie Stefan Röpke, Cologne
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner

Essen, Museum Folkwang; London, Whitechapel Gallery, Anselm Kiefer, 1981-82, p. 39, illustrated
Osaka, National Museum of Art, Modern Nude Painting 1880-1980, 1983
Champaign, Krannert Art Museum, New Painting, 1984

Colour: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate, although the overall tonality in the original is slightly brighter and more vibrant. Condition: This work is in very good condition. There is some wear to the upper extreme corner tips, with an associated tiny loss to the upper left corner tip. Very close inspection reveals hairline drying cracks in some of the thicker areas of impasto. No restoration is apparent when examined under ultraviolet light.
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Dominating the composition, a woman with long, raven hair sits with her back to the viewer and faces a city in ruins. Dating from 1981, Dein Aschenes Haar Sulamith is a poignant example from Anselm Kiefer’s series of paintings based around Paul Celan’s poem Death Fugue from 1944. The artist began the series of paintings in 1980 and the theme preoccupied him for over twenty-five years, becoming one of the most recurrent in his oeuvre. Death Fugue is a haunting allegory on the horrors of war, and would become the Romanian poet’s most well-known work after being published in 1952. The poem ends with the lines:

“your golden hair Margarete

your ashen hair Sulamith”

and it is around these two figures that Kiefer’s paintings revolve. In them the artist used straw to represent Margarete’s golden hair, which was meant as a metaphor for Aryan identity. In contrast, the canvases that Kiefer devoted to Sulamith’s character - which he used to represent Jewish identity - are characterised by the artist’s use of a darker palette, with energetic black brushstrokes to represent her hair. In his essay for the exhibition organised by The Art Institute of Chicago and the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 1987, Mark Rosenthal wrote about these paintings: “In Kiefer’s view, Germany maimed itself and its civilization by destroying its Jewish members and so, by frequently alluding to both figures, he attempts to make Germany whole again” (Mark Rosenthal, ‘A Formal Breakthrough: 1980 to 1982’ in: Exhibition Catalogue, Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago and travelling, Anselm Kiefer, 1987-89, p. 96). German identity and history are pivotal ideas in Kiefer’s work. Early on in his career in 1971, the artist started to visit Joseph Beuys in his studio in Dusseldorf and continued to do so for over a year. The elder artist’s concern with his own past and fascination with mythological subjects were arguably a key influence for the artist, who has since then created an astonishingly complex body of work that contains multiple references to German history and mythology. The dynamic and vigorous strokes of paint with which Kiefer has covered Dein Aschenes Haar Sulamith bring a sense of urgency and strong emotion that attests to the importance the subject plays in his work. The result is a powerful and energetic painting, the artist’s own reflection on his past, and that of his nation.