PHOTOGRAPHS
Kiefer, Anselm
Germany (1945 - )
Untitled (Sketch for Unternehmen Seelöwe [Enterprise Sealion])
1975
Gelatin silver print
23 1/4 x 32 3/4 in. (59 x 83.2 cm) image and sheet size; 34 3/16 x 43 3/16 x 1 3/8 in. (86.8 x 109.7 x 3.5 cm) frame size
Joseph and Elaine Monsen Photography Collection, gift of Joseph and Elaine Monsen and The Boeing Company
FA 97.84

Born in Germany, Anselm Kiefer is one of the art-stars of the 1980s, a painter who often embeds a mural-sized photograph beneath his thickly painted canvases. He frequently begins his work with a photographic image, then enlarges it to monumental size, and embellishes it with painterly marks. More recently, he has used photographs as the primary page elements for a series of hand-painted books, of which this image from Unternehmen Seelöwe is an example. Kiefer uses the chemical components of photography as metaphors for the elemental forces of nature. His photographs are altered by photo chemistry or silver solder, and then laid on the studio floor to be walked on or bicycled over, after which they are coated with paint, clay, glue or sand. In his work, Kiefer's own actions become a part of the finished image, which at once evokes something battered, mysterious, and deeply personal. -- Label copy for After Art: Rethinking 150 Years of Photography, Henry Art Gallery, December 4, 1994 to March 26, 1995.