ANSELM KIEFER | Walfisch

Ben Brown Fine Arts, London
Acquired from the above by the present owner

Colour: The colour in the catalogue illustration is fairly accurate, although the overall tonality is slightly cooler with less magenta undertones in the original. Condition: This work is very good condition. All surface irregularities, cracks, lifting and spots of loss are in keeping with the artist's working process and choice of organic materials. The lead undulates slightly and has some irregularities and cracks to its extreme edges, one of which has an associated loss towards the lower right hand corner. No restoration is apparent when examined under ultra violet 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."

“All of the constellations are illusions or ghosts. They do not exist. The light we see today was emitted millions, billions of years ago and of course their source as constantly changing, moving, and dying. These lights we see, this heaven has nothing to do with our current reality… We cannot stand not to have a heaven in our minds. If there really was a heaven, it would exist outside of science or religion” (Anselm Kiefer in conversation with Michael Auping in: Exh. Cat., Fort Worth, Fort Worth Museum of Modern Art, Anselm Kiefer: Heaven and Earth, 2005, p. 339).
A dazzling panorama spanning three metres in width, Walfisch is a rare combination of two of Kiefer’s most striking leitmotifs: the gunboat and celestial constellations. The work encapsulates the artist’s unyielding examination of the human condition through the lens of German national history, and sees the artist elevate his scope of enquiry onto the celestial stage, under the limelight of glimmering stars.

Kiefer began experimenting with star-charts from the 1990s, drawing inspiration from seventeenth-century philosopher and alchemist Robert Fludd, who argued that every plant was connected to a star in the universe. The artist’s ensuing series, Secret Life of Plants, which he began in 2001, juxtaposed specimens of flora against canvases depicting constellations. As the vegetation’s branches stretched over the canvases, they traced the lines linking different stars, highlighting the inseparable link between terrestrial nature and heavenly order.

In Walfisch, the map of constellations morphs into a metaphysical representation of the inner human mind. “Heaven is an idea… not a physical construction,” Kiefer declared (Anselm Kiefer in conversation with Michael Auping, in: Exh. Cat., Fort Worth, Fort Worth Museum of Art, Anselm Kiefer: Heaven and Earth, 2005, p. 168). The warship is a recurrent symbol in Kiefer’s work of destruction, warfare and loss of human lives, and is often used to evoke Germany’s tortured history. In the present work, the ship takes on a new cosmic significance as it sails the sea of stars, recalling the famous space-faring vessels of science fiction. This allusion to extraterrestrial exploration is, however, tinged with irony. Not only does the ship’s militaristic history recall the Nazi regime’s visions of world conquest, its visible cracks and signs of decay further imply its impotence and utter unsuitability to the task.

For the post-Auschwitz world where, according to Adorno, even writing poetry is considered a barbarous act, Kiefer postulates how we might habour hope without neglecting the darkness of the past, arguing “there is always hope, but that must be combined with irony and, more important, skepticism" (Ibid., p. 27). Like the artist, the ship in Walfisch navigates the universe with a reserved optimism, the scars on its hull being visible reminders of Germany’s traumatic history. The sea of stars keeps the battered ship afloat and guides it along its course, a poetic metaphor for how we must also carry in our minds the weight of history, and draw on it to guide us as we journey through the present and the future.