Anselm Kiefer often dedicates his works to intriguing figures of the past, be they poets or philosophers. This piece is one of a number of works emerging from Kiefer’s ongoing exploration of the Russian Futurist avant-garde writer, theorist and absurdist Velimir Khlebnikov (1885-1922).

After years of study, Khlebnikov concluded that a major sea battle took place every 317 years, or multiples thereof. Kiefer celebrates this heroic and ludicrous activity with a work that is both monument and anti-monument. Measuring almost 17 metres in total and consisting of two large glass vitrines, Kiefer creates a transparent, reflective sea-scape in three dimensions that calls to mind the Romantic sublime of painters from JMW Turner to Caspar David Friedrich. Kiefer uses the frames of the vitrines to stage a mysterious drama, in which viewers, seeing each other and their own reflections, become participants.

In the final gallery of the exhibition is a work constructed specifically for this exhibition. In this Kiefer returns to the woodcut and to the Rhine of his homeland. Kiefer’s interest in the Rhine, which marks the division between Germany and France, is linked to his consideration of borders. The basement of Kiefer’s childhood home, close to the river’s banks, would regularly flood with the springtime meltwaters, raising the question of where the border now lay, and whether France had indeed entered his basement.

In this ‘forest’ through which we can walk, its leporello format echoing the pages of a book, Kiefer also makes reference to the influence of the great German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832), as well as to Paul Celan and the German artist Albrect Dürer (1471–1528). The totemic Rhine runs across the works, and key motifs such as the melancholic polyhedron, the crucible of flames, the Holy Trinity and the bomb-damaged defences and bunkers of the Siegfried Line, are also recorded here.

As an artist, Kiefer confronts history directly, often creating works that refer to ideas of memory, identity, knowledge and spirituality. His paintings and sculptures have many layers of meaning, and are often made up of many different materials.

Let’s explore…