To the Unknown Painter, Anselm Kiefer

To the Unkn own Painter, Anselm KieferTo the Unknown Painter, a pictorial matter made of oil, acrylic, latex, emulsion, and shellac, was created by Anselm Kiefer in 1983 (Figure 1). A pallette adorn upon a pedestal sits in a vacated property surrounded by tattered columns while casket-like shapes seem to lay on the ground most the pedestal. Dark colors envelope the horizon while reds, browns, and whites color the columns. The palette sits directly in the center, almost unrecognizable, with a thin pedestal that matches the naughty blue and black of the horizon. Straw is stuck on with a planned randomicity, boastful it a patched and messy look. Although the argona is physically empty, it is filled with Kiefers own victimhood and memories of traumatic events during Nazi Germany1Empty interiors of Nazi architecture, specifically referring to the courtyard of Hitlers Chancellery in Berlin designed by Speer, are used as a put for traumatic memories that will non be mourned or a s pace of internalization. Kiefer, a German himself, was born shortly before the Holocaust ended, so he did non experience much of the horrors many people lived through. The walls of columns apprize the Nazis and German rule keeping hidden the actions they had committed against millions of victims. Whereas the palette delivers himself, a painter, who is stuck among the past and judgments of the present. The messy and scratchy texture simulates how Nazis would destroy artwork that were not in agreement with the German power.The painting speaks towards not only almost himself, but towards the Germans and the Judaic. The empty space holds a memorial for traumatic memories of the Holocaust. suspend in the center, the palette mounted on a pedestal becomes a memorial for Kiefers own sense of victimhood2. The palette, representing the victim, appears to look like it is trying to grow above the past and move on from those horrific events. Because he is German, he imagines himself as the victim of a burdensome historical legacy, unable to be unselfconsciously German because of the judgements passed on from others3.The painting brings people to the attention that not only what had happened was horrible, they shouldnt continuously badly judge and criticize current Germans who had no control of their ancestors choices. While the palette is reminiscent of a helmet resting upon a gun, it relates to a fallen soldier in a battle. Memorializing his life and what he went through. The beaten-up architecture brings us hold to remember that it is also a painting as well as a representation of memories being held within the space. Although the space seems to hold memories, the columns seem to be breaking and letting the memories go so they can be mourned and remembered instead of being repressed. The architecture reaches to the back with a 1 prefigure perspective as if it is reaching towards the past. on that point could be two different interpretations from the painting f rom two different audiences, the Jewish and the Germans, or himself. The Jewish could interpret this as a way to immortalise the victims during the Holocaust, those who died because of German power. Casket-like shapes on the ground could represent these victims. Kiefer made a problematic claim that he and other Germans are victims as well because of the claims that they are still like theyre ancestors, so they will continue to carry slightly the burden of being German. The painting brings the attention of more about the dig of repression and how people shouldnt hold in the memories and be able to mourn them and let them go.Kiefer painted this along with a few others in a series, one of which is Tomb of the Unknown Painter. Doing research, this painting and To the Unknown Painter both came up when trying to find information, although more sources were available for this one4. Both of the paintings are identical in that they both use the same materials and contain a scratchy text ure, attained with straw. Instead of a palette on a pedestal, a tomb sits upon stairs within a similar looking space. They represent similar things, traumatic events and a memorialization of those victims. The colors are depressed, representing the dark past, mixed with strokes of bright colors such as red and yellow.Overall, Kiefer displays a controversial topic about the German victimization that has an impact on millions of people and can open peoples eyes to the reality of stereotyping and judgement upon them. His point is to get across that people should not continue to blame others for their ancestors actions, alternatively mourn the past and move on with a rebirth of a society.Word count 814Figure 1. To the Unknown Painter, Anselm Kiefer. 1983. Dem unbekannten Maler. Oil, acrylic, emulsion, shellac, and straw on canvas. 208 x 380cm5.BibliographySaltzman, Lisa. Anselm Kiefer And Art After Auschwitz. Cambridge Cambridge University Press, 1999.Arasse, Daniel. Anselm Kiefer. Ne w York Thames Hudson, 2015.1 Lisa Saltzman. Anselm Kiefer And Art After Auschwitz. (Cambridge Cambridge University Press, 1999), 68.2 Ibid, 68.3 Ibid, 69.4 Daniel Arasse, Anselm Kiefer (New York Thames Hudson, 2015), 70.5 Ibid, 70.