Anselm Kiefer

Anselm Kiefer, born in 1945, is one of the most important and controversial artists at work in the world today. Through such diverse mediums as painting, photography, artists' books, installations, and sculpture, he has interpreted the great political and cultural issues at the heart of the modern European sensibility: the connections between memory, history, and mythology; war; the Holocaust; and ethnic and national identity. In this extensively illustrated, thoughtful survey of his work, available again in a new and compact format, author Daniel Arasse analyzes Kiefer's education, influences, philosophy, and art, while demonstrating the unity and continuity of his work. Arasse takes as his starting point the 1980 Venice Biennale, a key moment in Kiefer's career that marked the birth of both his international reputation and the controversy over the strong focus on German civilization that characterized much of his work.