Anselm Kiefer

This in-depth exploration of Anselm Kiefer’s career illustrates how his depictions of women reinforce and challenge the artist’s traditional themes of identity, memory, and the interplay between history and mythology.

While Kiefer is rarely associated with feminine themes or imagery, women have been a crucial aspect throughout his work since the late 1960s. Featuring stunning, color-saturated, full-page reproductions, this book examines how the artist focusses on strong and ambivalent female figures to investigate complex ideas of identity and memory, as well as themes of femininity, myth, and historical narrative.

Key pieces include Lilith, which powerfully represents feminine strength amidst darkness; Margarethe, reflecting on loss and remembrance; the Brunhilde paintings, which explore themes of heroism and sacrifice; and For Madame de Staël, honoring the legacy of the influential French intellectual. With his sculptures Women of Antiquity, Kiefer gives back presence and language to women who have fallen into oblivion and revives their thought and ideas, their vision, creative power and radicalism.

The book captures Kiefer’s remarkable facility with a vast array of media—from painting, watercolor, woodcut, sculpture, installation, and photography. This book offers readers a unique perspective on Kiefer’s entire career and the sheer magnitude of his achievement.PETRA GILOY-HIRTZ is an independent curator for contemporary art. Her publications and exhibitions include Julian Schnabel: Polaroids, Dennis Hopper: The Lost Album, David Lynch: The Factory Photographs, and Kiki Smith: Procession.