ANSELM KIEFER | Johannis Nacht (Midsummer Night)

Private Collection, Germany
Private Collection (acquired from the above in 1990)
Sotheby's, London, 6 February 2004, Lot 136
Private Collection, Italy
Sotheby's, London, 16 February 2012, Lot 169
Private Collection, Europe
Acquired from the above by the present owner

Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago; Philadelphia, The Museum of Modern Art; Los Angeles, The Museum of Contemporary Art; and New York, The Museum of Modern Art, Kiefer, December 1987 - January 1989, p. 151, illustrated in colour
Rome, Scuderie del Quirinale, Burri: Gli artisi e la materia 1945 - 2004, November 2005 - February 2006, p. 143, illustrated in colour

Colour: The colour in the printed catalogue is fairly accurate. Condition: This work is in very good and original condition. There are some faint rub marks in places along the frame. All collaged elements are stable. Some of the impasto peaks have lightly pressed against the glass. The fern is slightly discoloured which is consistent with its natural ageing process. There are some short tears and nicks in places, all of which are in keeping with the artist's working process and choice of media. There are some fine superficial scratches in places to the lead as well as some light oxidation which are in keeping with the artist's choice of media.
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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."

 “Johannisnacht is a special night in which fields are set on fire and religion bares its roots in ancient mystical acts.” Anselm Kiefer cited in: Exh. Cat., Fort Worth, Modern Art Museum, Anselm Kiefer: Heaven and Earth, 2005, p. 90 In 1990, only three years after the execution of the Johannis Nacht, Anselm Kiefer was awarded the Kaiserring of the city Goslar. To mark the occasion, he created a site specific installation on the medieval Mönchenhausen Museum complex with the eponymous title “Johannis Nacht”. In a former stable and three dark cellar vaults – still on view today - arose an impressive installation: the first of its kind outside of Kiefer’s studio. The four rooms deal with separate themes from Greek mythology, the Jewish Kabbalah, and vernacular Christianity. In spite of their different motifs, the works are mutually related on many levels, combining a number of themes typical of Kiefer’s oeuvre of the time.

The title Johannis Nacht, also known as St. John’s Eve or Midsummer Night, refers to the evening before and is celebrated in Germany with a ritual of both pagan and Christian significance. Bonfires and raucous festivities are part of the holiday, which was celebrated by the Druids as the marriage of heaven and earth. This particular night is known in Christianity as the birth of Saint John the Baptist, who prepared the way for Christ’s arrival. In the present work, Kiefer has replaced St John with a dried fern, a symbolically laden precursor for the artist. As Kiefer explained “the first trees were ferns. They are primal. Charcoal and oil are made out of ferns that existed at the beginning of life. There are many stories and folktales about plants having memories. If this is true, ferns could tell us a great deal about our beginnings. Like forests, ferns may contain secret knowledge. But they are complex in relation to Christian symbols of light. They grow in the shade. On the evening of Johannisnacht, the devil goes out into the fields and spreads fern seeds. This created a certain chaos. Ferns mind us that we also need the darkness” (Anselm Kiefer cited in: Exh. Cat., Fort Worth, Modern Art Museum, Anselm Kiefer: Heaven and Earth, 2005, p. 90). Only certain ferns are said to flower at midnight and unfold their magic. It is said, that when gathered that same night, they will have healing powers, which can also enhance the fertility of the soil. The fern’s flower is believed to make the lucky finder omniscient, allowing him or her to read the thoughts of others, understand the language of animals, and to predict the death of a person. It was this pagan belief that lead to a ban of the collection of ferns and their seeds during Midsummer’s Night by the Synod of Ferrara in 1612.

At the time that Johannis Nacht was executed, Kiefer was beginning to come to terms with German history and his work focused increasingly on mythical and mythological themes and the present work should be seen in context with Kiefer’s alchemical or physically oriented interests, namely reuniting the fern with the material lead. Lead is among the creative materials; it is, as Kiefer coined himself, a versatile ‘spiritual substance’ that belongs to the melancholy temperament and the sphere of Saturn. By placing the fern in an astral space where it would burn forever, Kiefer reveals it as a symbol or emanation of the Divinity.  Kiefer’s work is always metaphorical and seeks to be understood in its manifold references and ambivalences. His mythological explorations in the depths of the cultural memory of mankind never remain in the past, but touch us also in the present.