Anselm Kiefer

Artist

1945-03-08

Anselm Kiefer is a German painter and sculptor known for large-scale works engaging with history, myth, and memory. He is one of the most influential postwar German artists.

Quotes by Anselm Kiefer

Ruins, for me, are the beginning. With the debris, you can construct new ideas. They are symbols of a beginning.
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When, at the end of the 1960s, I became interested in the Nazi era, it was a taboo subject in Germany. No one spoke about it anymore, no more in my house than anywhere else.
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What does the artist do? He draws connections. He ties the invisible threads between things. He dives into history, be it the history of mankind, the geological history of the Earth or the beginning and end of the manifest cosmos.
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I was interested in transcendence from a very early age. I was interested in what was over there, what was behind life. So when I had my first communion I was very disappointed. I had expected something amazing and surprising and spiritual. Instead all I got was a bicycle. That wasn't what I was after at all.
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I believe in empty spaces; they're the most wonderful thing.
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