Beschreibung:

Anselm Kiefer Samson and Delilah 2011 oil, emulsion, acrylic, collage on canvas 190 x 380 cm. (74 3/4 x 149 5/8 in.)
Provenance Acquired directly from the artist Private Collection, Germany Exhibited Koblenz, Ludwig Museum, Anselm Kiefer Memorabilia, 19 August – 28 October 2012 Cologne, Galerie Klaus Benden, Anselm Kiefer Alchemie, 2 March - 24 April 2013 Hagen, Germany, ‎Osthaus Museum, Anselm Kiefer - Barren Landscapes, 5 May - 14 July 2013 Literature Dr. B. Reifenscheid, ed., K. Honnef, D.Ronte, Anselm Kiefer Memorabilia, Milan, 2012 Catalogue Essay “ What interests me is the transformation, not the monument. I don’t construct ruins, but I feel ruins are moments when things show themselves. A ruin is not a catastrophe. It is the moment when things can start again.” ANSELM KIEFER Revered for his multifaceted investigation of myth, memory and guilt, Anselm Kiefer has generated a body of work that confronts legacies as much as it invites collective healing. Stemming from a generation of artists who endeavoured to negotiate the national identity of post-World War II Germany and the irreparable destruction of the Holocaust, Kiefer’s monumental oeuvre, spanning painting, sculpture and photography, responds to historical narratives that have been appropriated and propagated for political gain. By reclaiming and even re-contextualizing loaded narratives, the artist creates a dialogue between meta-narratives, civilizations throughout history and his cultural past. Materializing in intimately sized paintings, large-scale canvases and sculpture, the artist’s most recent series, titled Alkahest, delves into the process of alchemy and its symbolic association with spiritual transformation. Alkahest, a term used for a universal solvent that can dissolve any substance was also associated with the philosopher’s stone, which was believed to be the elixir of life, a symbol of perfection and enlightenment. Water is the closest known element to signify Alkahest, an element that carries great significance in Kiefer’s practice: “I often lay pictures on the floor and pour water over them, or pour on water that has paint dissolved in it. So I’m exposing them to dilution.[...] Water has to do with erosion. Whole mountains, and sediments that have accumulated over millions of years, are carried down to the sea by water. Water contributes to the cycle. Rock that looks as though it will last forever is dissolved, crushed to sand and mud.” (A. Kiefer, 2009, in Anselm Kiefer Alkahest, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Salzburg 2011.) During the time this series was created, Kiefer was honoured in Germany and the United States, awarded with the Berliner Bär B.Z.-Kulturpreis as well as the Leo Baeck Medal in recognition of his contributions to German and Jewish reconciliation. Certainly, Alkahest is a culmination of the artist’s formidable use of imagery and critical exploration, an epic in scope and complexity. Pervaded by powerful notions of metamorphosis, Kiefer’s series is based on narratives inspired by the philosophical writing of Martin Heidegger, the poems of Friedrich Hölderlin, and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe as well as Nordic mythology and biblical stories taken from the Old Testament. The present lot, Samson and Delilah, 2011, is an exemplary work from the Alkahest series, at once majestic and loaded, the viewer is presented with an awe-inspiring perspective as we gaze over a great expanse of mountain range looming over a quiet village. Affixed directly onto the canvas by two hanging wires is a large rifle incised with the name SAMSON. Floating directly above the rifle, another inscription appears hovering in the sky, Hebron, a term roughly translated to mean friend or alliance. Of course, the appearance of this word could also denote the proper name of an actual place, Mount Hebron, located in the southern West Bank and extending into Israel. This region was known for its Israelite and Hasmonean kingdoms during classical antiquity and also the geographical location of the city of Hebron. The biblical story of Samson and Delilah is well known in Western mythology