Anselm Kiefer: The Woodcuts

Unlike almost any other contemporary German artist, Anselm Kiefer (born 1945) has rendered the horrors of recent history and created profound works of art with mythological, religious and philosophical themes, in subtle layers that alternately cover as well as uncover one another―that contain the knowledge of the inevitable transformation and dissolution of all matter, at once monumental and material-related. These fundamental elements also inform his woodcuts. This catalogue, accompanying the retrospective of the same name at the Albertina, Vienna, deals with these for the first time. More than 35 major works comprise the most important cycles and thematic groups and demonstrate their variety, from the earliest works in traditional book format and the fascinating large-format works titled Brunhilde: Grane, to the Ways of Worldly Wisdom: Arminius’s Battle and the Rhine woodcuts.