Artwork Page for Lot's Wife

Details / Information for Lot's Wife

Lot's Wife

1989

Anselm Kiefer

(German, 1945-)
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Culture
Germany, 20th century
Medium
oil paint, ash, stucco, chalk, linseed oil, polymer emulsion, salt, and applied elements (copper heating coil), on canvas, attached to lead foil, on plywood panels
Measurements
Framed: 350 x 410 cm (137 13/16 x 161 7/16 in.)
Weight: 1,000 each panel
Credit Line
Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund 1990.8
Copyright
© Anselm Kiefer
This artwork is known to be under copyright.
Location
229B Contemporary
Print
?

Did You Know?

The subject of railroad tracks was inspired by the artist’s photograph of the Bordeaux rail facility.

Description

Born in the final year of World War II, Anselm Kiefer addresses the history and legacy of the Third Reich in his native Germany. "We see railway tracks anywhere and think about Auschwitz," the artist said soon after painting Lot's Wife. "It will remain that way in the long run." The drama of the railway tracks dissecting a barren landscape is heightened by the work's surface, dense with gesture and a range of materials, including salt. Referring to the fate of Lot's wife in the Book of Genesis—who was turned to a pillar of salt when she looked back at the destruction of Sodom—Kiefer frames a historical narrative within a biblical one.
A square multimedia wall-sized painting in brown and gray tones depicts two train tracks emerging from the lower right corner and diverging as they extend toward the horizon. Flaking layers crack and peel away from the panel, giving the illusion of dried mud. Cream paint splashes across a gray blue sky in the upper half. A copper heating coil, splattered with paint to merge with the scene, hangs from the right railway track.

Lot's Wife

1989

Anselm Kiefer

(German, 1945-)
Germany, 20th century

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