Anselm Kiefer - White Cube

Anselm Kiefer: Il Mistero delle Cattedrali is showing at White Cube Bermondsey, the gallery's huge new space in South London. The title of the exhibition is taken from a 1926 publication by Fulcanelli, which claimed that the Gothic cathedrals of Europe had openly displayed the hidden code of alchemy for over 700 years.

The exhibition promises big themes (alchemy, German history) and Kiefer's trademark large-scale work. In an interview in The Guardian, Kiefer says: 

Art is difficult. It's not entertainment. There are only a few people who can say something about art – it's very restricted. When I see a new artist I give myself a lot of time to reflect and decide whether it's art or not. Buying art is not understanding art.

Asked his response to Charles Saatchi's recent outburst, declaring that,

Being an art buyer these days is comprehensively and indisputably vulgar. It is the sport of the Eurotrashy, Hedge-fundy, Hamptonites; of trendy oligarchs and oiligarchs; and of art dealers with masturbatory levels of self-regard.

Kiefer replied,

"He described himself, no?"... laughing uproariously. "[These days] art becomes fashion, it becomes [financial] speculation, but Saatchi started it."

The artist also reveals that he has bought a decommissioned nuclear power station: the Mülheim-Kärlich reactor; he remarks that standing inside the power station's cooling tower was overwhelming. It's so wonderful it's like the Pantheon. It will be a challenge for me to do something with it because it's already very good. (See picture, below.)
The exhibtion continues until 26 February, 2012.

Anselm Kiefer, Dat rosa miel apibas (detail), 2009

Anselm Kiefer, Antonin Artaud Heliogabalus, 2010-2011

Anselm Kiefer, Samson (detail), 2010

Anselm Kiefer, Tempelhof, 2010-11

Anselm Kiefer, Sprache der Vögel (detail), 1988-2011

The decommissioned Mülheim-Kärlich reactor being bought by Anselm Kiefer

Charles Saatchi, 1943 -

Charles Saatchi has announced his intention to give a part of his collection and the Saatchi Gallery to the nation. See Guardian news story and comment by Adrian Searle. Reactions have been mixed. The following comments by Andrew Graham-Dixon are transcribed from BBC Radio 4's Front Row, broadcast on 1st July:

[Kirsty Lang (presenter): It was announced today that Charles Saatchi is gifting over 200 works, and his Saatchi Gallery in Chelsea, to the nation, to create a Museum of Contemporary Art… I asked [Andrew Graham-Dixon] for his reaction]

Just too late… I would have had Charles Saatchi’s collection, I would have bitten his hand off in 1987 - this was probably the greatest collection of contemporary art built up by anyone in the second half of the twentieth century…all those Warhols, all those Anselm Kiefers, that extraordinary collection: Bruce Nauman, Sol Lewitt, Carl Andre… incredible. … He’s sold them all… all the pies have been eaten [Kirsty Lang: …but it’s still a pretty impressive list of artists in there...?] No, not really, not for me. No, this is the crumbs on the table after all the pies have been eaten. This is the loose change in the box….It is just a terrible, terrible… shame that the greatest collection of contemporary art that the world has ever seen art was allowed to turn into - talcum powder - just disappear.