Alchemy of Art: The Weight of Transformation

Anselm Kiefer is one of the world’s greatest living artists. Born in Germany at the end of the Second World War, much of his work in paintings, sculptures and vast installation pieces, has addressed his country’s history and culture, asking difficult questions about the legacy of fascism and conflict. His paintings, thickly layered and sometimes embellished with straw or molten lead, often depict dark rutted fields or dense forests. Kiefer is renowned for the size of his work, and for his industrial-scale studio complexes in France, where he has lived for over thirty years. Kiefer's works are included in numerous public collections including the Museum of Modern Art and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Tate Modern, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the National Gallery of Australia. His most recent show at the Royal Academy in London has paired his works with those of one his artistic heroes for an exhibition called Kiefer/Van Gogh.

Producer: Edwina Pitman