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| Anselm Kiefer, Rorate Caeli Desuper, 2016 |
Anselm Kiefer: Walhalla is
at White Cube, Bermondsey until 12 February 2017
Kiefer’s big themes –
German history and mythology, creation and destruction – are fully present in
this hugely ambitious show which summons both the Walhalla of Norse myth - the enormous hall to which the dead battle-heroes,
chosen by Odin, were led by the Valkyries - and the 19th century Walhalla, the marbled-monument
to Germanic heroes created by King Ludwig I of Bavaria. However, in place of
the gold of myth and the splendid polished marble of Ludwig’s neo-classical
temple, Kiefer’s Walhalla is in the
colours of concrete and lead.
Kiefer has transformed the
central corridor of White Cube’s huge Bermondsey gallery into a bleak, gloomy, dormitory
of steel beds made up with lead sheets and pillows. In the galleries leading
off the corridor are sculptures, vast paintings and installations – one, installation,
Arsenal, replete with giant lead
books fills an entire gallery; the paintings, made of oil, acrylic,
emulsion, clay and lead are of ruined concrete towers in a scarred landscape
under apocalyptic skies.
Listen to Wagner’s Entry of the Gods into Walhalla from Das Rheingold.
See also blog entries on Kiefer's 2014 RA exhibition here and here.
Click on images to enlarge.
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| Anselm Kiefer, Walhalla, 1992-2016 |
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| Anselm Kiefer, Walhalla, 1992-2016 (detail) |
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| Anselm Kiefer, Sursum corda, 2016 |
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| Anselm Kiefer, Sursum corda, 2016 (detail) |
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| Anselm Kiefer, Arsenal, 1983-2016 (detail) |
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| Anselm Kiefer, San Loreto, 2016 |
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| Anselm Kiefer, Walhalla, installation view |
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| Anselm Kiefer, nubes pluant ustem, 2016 |
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Anselm Kiefer, nubes pluant ustem, 2016 (detail)
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Anselm Kiefer, Gehäutete
Landschaft, 2016
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Anselm Kiefer, Gehäutete
Landschaft, 2016 (detail)
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| Anselm Kiefer, Walhalla, installation view |
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Anselm Kiefer, from Walhalla, 2016
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| Anselm Kiefer, Walhalla, 2016 |
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