April 2009 | Michael Lieberman

Anselm Kiefer's "Hortus Philosophorum"

Verunglückte Hoffnung, 2008. Lead and pottery. 51 1/4 x 67 x 78 3/4 inches

The Rome branch of the Gagosian Gallery is currently featuring an exhibit of new work by German artist and Book Patrol favorite Anselm Keifer. The exhibit is titled "Hortus Philosophorum"

The exhibition includes a group of eight sculptures that "evoke some of the central themes in his work deriving from his assiduous study of poetry, mythology, and cultural history." Each of the sculptures incorporate Kiefer's signature lead books.

Danae, 2008. Lead, gold granules and aluminum sunflowers. 53 1/4 x 63 x 149 1/2 inches

"By constructing elaborate scenographies that cross the boundaries of art and literature, painting and sculpture, Kiefer engages the complex events of history, the ancestral epics of life, death, and the cosmos, and the fragile endurance of the sacred and the spiritual amid the ongoing destruction of the world."

More images here

Previously on Book Patrol:
The Book , Anselm Kiefer and the Universe
Anselm Kiefer and the Book
Searching for a German Identity: Anselm Kiefer's Homage to Paul Celan
Anselm Kiefer Moves into the Louvre