Artwork Page for Der Kyffhäuser

Details / Information for Der Kyffhäuser

Der Kyffhäuser

c. 1981

Anselm Kiefer

(German, 1945-)
Culture
Germany, 20th century
Medium
gelatin silver prints and gouache
Measurements
Image: 52.1 x 39 cm (20 1/2 x 15 3/8 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of the Cleveland Society for Contemporary Art, Advisory Council, Womens Council, and staff of The Cleveland Musuem of Art in honor of Evan and Brenda Turner 1993.127
Copyright
© Anselm Kiefer
This artwork is known to be under copyright.
Location
Not on view
Print

Description

During the last 40 years, Anselm Kiefer has gained a reputation as one of his generation's most important artists. He has produced a remarkable body of work distinguished by formal invention, diverse subject matter, and often controversial content. This image depicts the cellar of Kiefer's studio, where he constructed a pool in which an artist's palette floats. To suggest a complex, discontinuous interior, Kiefer painted abstract marks and arrows across two joined photographic prints. As a fantasy of nationalist patriotism with disturbing echoes of the Third Reich, the title Der Kyffhäuser refers to the mountain where some Germans believed the 12th-century Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I slept, waiting to be awakened to reestablish the lost glory of the past. In reinterpreting the myth, Kiefer substituted an artist's palette for the emperor's sword and an artist's studio for the hidden mountain cave.

Der Kyffhäuser

c. 1981

Anselm Kiefer

(German, 1945-)
Germany, 20th century

See Also

  • Collection
    German Photography
  • Department
    Photography
  • Type of artwork
    Photograph
  • Medium
    Gelatin silver print
  • Credit line
    Gift of the Cleveland Society for Contemporary Art, Advisory Council, Womens Council, and Staff of The Cleveland Musuem of Art In Honor of Evan and Brenda Turner

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