Anselm Kiefer's "Salt of the Earth" and "Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow"

I'm very excited about the new documentary on Anselm Kiefer as my love for Kiefer's artwork rivals that of Ed Ruscha's. In the NY Times: "The idea for a film arose when Mr. Kiefer, eager for someone to document the mysterious universe he had created, invited Ms. Fiennes to visit Barjac. “It was a completely kind of mad and disorientating labyrinth,” Ms. Fiennes, 44, said over tea in the living room of a friend’s apartment here. She wandered the grounds, navigating tunnels illuminated with skylights or single bulbs, discovering a crypt and an amphitheater and a patch of land scattered with concrete towers inspired by the biblical story of Lilith that resemble modern ruins. “I was amazed,” she said. “There is an inherent theatricality or cinematic quality to what he’s made there that leant itself to filmmaking.”



One of my favorite exhibitions at the Venice Biennale was Kiefer's Salt of the Earth. It was located in the Fondazione Emilio e Annabianca Vedova, an old Venetian salt storage facility built in the 15th century.

From the press release: "...consisting of a structure in which are hung photographs of landscapes on sheets of lead submitted to a process of electrolysis that has covered them in a green patina: a colour underlying hope and announcing the union of opposites."


From the front.


From the back.


Two details from the middle.



These are the photographs I came back still thinking about. These are the photographs I once longed to make.