Lot 393
  • 393

Anselm Kiefer

Estimate
200,000 - 300,000 GBP
bidding is closed

Description

  • Anselm Kiefer
  • Die Ordnung der Engel
  • titled
  • paint, sand, ash, clay, and chalk on board with iron and cotton and linen dresses
  • 285.6 by 140.6cm.; 112 1/2 by 55 1/4 in.
  • Executed in 2010.

Provenance

Galleria Lorcan O'Neill, Rome
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner

Exhibited

Rome, Galleria Lorcan O'Neill, Anselm Kiefer: Die Ordnung der Engel, 2010

Condition

Colour: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate, although there are fewer blue undertones in the original. The illustration also fails to fully convey the three dimensionality and texture apparent in the original. Condition: This work is in very good and original condition.
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Catalogue Note

Interweaving myths, religion and history, Die Ordnung der Engel (The Hierarchy of Angels) is a consummate example of Kiefer's seminal practice. Whereas the artist’s initial explorations sought to address German guilt and global post-war trauma, Kiefer’s later work cast a much wider scholastic arc in search of universal truths. The magnificent regal tower of lead has a grandiose presence, usually attributed to the noble genre of History painting. Here, however, it is transcended by a more careful, empathic reading of the work’s scorched surface. Below the low line of horizon, the wounded and fractured earth seems to have released a flock of tiny dresses numbered 1 to 9, spiralling upwards to the heavens. Incised above the composition, the title refers to a text by Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite dating from the 4th-5th Century A.D. which outlines the “celestial hierarchy”. Notably found in Jewish and early Christian traditions, the celestial hierarchy put forward by Pseudo-Dionysius classifies angels in three Spheres, each containing three subcategories called ‘Orders’ or ‘Choirs’. The nine choirs navigate between heaven and earth to protect the throne of God, by descending order of importance.
Punctuating the surface, the angelic orders allegorically represented in Die Ordnung der Engel by nine small white garments, linger in the nebulae between mortal and divine - though rather than pure and immaculate, they appear soiled and tainted with soot. Channelling the atmosphere of a godless post-apocalyptic world, Die Ordnung der Engel with its fallen angels seemingly caught in limbo over the ruins of a dehumanized land, echoing the victims of an infernal tragedy – perhaps the Shoah itself. By presenting this dramatic content, however, and forcing the beholder’s acknowledgement, Kiefer’s overarching composition transcends historical trauma. This hopeful, transformative reading of Kiefer’s melancholic picture also stems from the artist’s use of fire, a means of destruction which carries correspondent promises of re-birth and reconstruction. As an artist-alchemist (notably a student under Joseph Beuys), Kiefer burns the surface of his work to spur an alternate, hopeful interpretation: having caused it to suffer, significance is restored.
Part of an eponymous series initiated in 1983 – examples of which are in the permanent collection of the Walker Art Centre in Minneapolis, the Arts Institute of Chicago and the Caixa de Pensions, Barcelona – Die Ordnung der Engel remarkably and powerfully exposes the parallels between collective consciousness and mythology with the darkest, most abominable chapters in History. As such, with its dense network of cultural referents and quiet, arcane spectacle, Die Ordnung der Engel constitutes a poignant yet hopeful homage to tragedy and sacrifice in the modern era.