Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Nobody Loves Anselm Kiefer

.
At least not on New Year's Day afternoon in the St. Louis Art Museum. Anselm Kiefer is is a contemporary German artist who for some years has worked from his studio in the comfort of the south of France. His images are large scale, made from mixed media including paint, lead, earth, straw, shellac and other materials. It's hard stuff, often relating to German history and culture. You can see many examples here. The piece in the photo is entitled Burning Rods. His work is a challenge to the viewer. Most of the people in the museum that day must have been off looking at the Monets. Except me and my wife.

WHAT REALLY NICE THING HAPPENED YESTERDAY:
Washington University in St. Louis has a newish art gallery, the Kemper Museum. A special exhibit opening on January 30 is about Eero Saarinen, the designer of our own Gateway arch and architect of many other important buildings. One of the curators emailed me, asking if they could use some of the text from my Gateway blog in the exhibit's printed materials and link to my blog in the in its web page once it opens. Uh, yeah, I think that's okay.


To celebrate, there's a new Arch photo on Gateway today.



TOMORROW:
recursive function.

11 comments:

Julie said...

Yeah ... probably okay ... I reckon ...

Olivier said...

dans les œuvres que je viens de découvrir, j'aime bien la série sur les livres et bibliothèques

in the works that I just found out, I like the series of books and libraries

Virginia said...

I don't love it but I don't hate it either. Rather like the top part . I try to be open-minded about art. I think you and C. do a better job at it than I do!HA

Congrats on that nice honor. Richly deserved. They ought to feature all your Arch shots in an exhibit!

PJ said...

What I kept thinking was I would like to see the settees moved more to the right and then there would be more tension between all the elements in the photo. In other words, the painting, from all the way out here, needs the parquet and the settees. Who knows what the artist had in mind, although, I love texture. It just isn't my palette and my synaesthesiac brain requires the palette up front. The ocean of parquet is wonderful.

PJ said...

It's growing on me now that I've had time to look at it. Blog museums are a wonderful thing.

U "R" Us AKA Captain Crowe said...

I remember focusing in on this piece on a docent-led visit in high school I think. I still like it. Not sure if LOVE is apt for me though. Nice framing with the seats on your part. I'm enticed by your teaser. Recursion! A concept a lot of folk couldn't begin to define.

Virginia said...

B,
Email is not working . Either one. Left you a comment.
V

Sterl the Pearl's Daily Pics of Boulder said...

i like it..all. nice to have your work recognized for recognizing others work (?) :)

Pat said...

Hmmm. Not bad, but very atypical of work one would think an artist would do in the south of France, color-wise I mean. I love the shiny parquet floors...slip, slip.


Thanks for your comment on my "yogurt" shot. I was actually upset that the placemats I used for the shot were wrinkled, and impossible to Photoshop the wrinkles out.... They were the only sort of typical background I had!

Erica said...

I came across your blog when I did a Google search for "burning rods alselm kiefer". I was surprised that you wrote about visiting that piece at the art museum on New Year's Day 2009, for I also went to SLAM that day and visited each Kiefer piece and the other German modernists. So, I wouldn't say no one loves Anselm Kiefer. I love him and loved him that afternoon.

EaLaSpada said...

I love him. And I love Burning Rods. In fact, that is my favorite piece at SLAM. I've spent many an hour in those very seats, taking it in and wishing I could take it with me.