Anselm Keiffer : Monumental Poetry

Anselm Keiffer doesn’t interpret his art, he wants us to take part in his work and interpret it as it appeals to us. This German artist which has been living in France for over 12 years would have also liked to be a writer, but has made the choice to dedicate himself to visual arts. He has been associated to the German Romantics of the 19th century, a provocative group of artists who rooted society in nature and did not want to be associated to any artistic style. Anselm Kieffer is the first artist to take up the challenge and exhibit his latest work at Monumenta, a new event presented at the Grand Palais in Paris.


The exhibition consists of a small part of what the artist has been working on for the past ten years in the city of Barjac in the south of France where his workshop is located. Anselm Kieffer has been creating houses/buildings as single units in which paintings and sculptures are inserted. According to him, the building and the artwork should be considered as an entity, a “creative space”. The eight houses - themes –that are presented are all a process of association of words, ideas and images that have a common thread. They refer to written works and poems which have touched the artist throughout his life. The result is a dialogue between concepts and images that work wonderfully well visually, but that all have a specific idea behind them.

Monumenta is a new contemporary art event providing leading international artists with the opportunity to engage with Paris's Grand Palais location, through the creation of a series of totally new installations. This is a great opportunity to discover the work of today's living artists. Richard Serra and Christian Boltanskiv will respectively take part in Monumenta 2008 and 2009. This is a must-see exhibition whether or not you are familiar with contemporary art. I highly recommend the audio-guide which is free with your entrance ticket.

Monumenta 2007: Anselm Kiefer “Falling Stars”.
Presented at Grand Palais, Avenue Winston Churchill, Paris
May 30 to July 8, 2007