By Giulia Piceni. Cover image: Anselm Kiefer. Angeli caduti, Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, 2024. Photo Ela Bialkowska, OKNO Studio Ⓒ Anselm Kiefer.
The Angels’ Fall, also known as Engelssturz, is a mythological and religious motif that symbolises the loss of morality and divine grace. Found in various mythologies, including Christianity, it is particularly associated with Lucifer, portrayed as the leader of the fallen angels in this tradition.
Anselm Kiefer’s exhibition at Palazzo Strozzi (open until July 21) is an exploration of the history of humanity as a way to access the inner self and achieve introspection. Through a journey of allegories and metaphors, the exhibition depicts the cyclical nature of falling and rising, reflecting the resilience of Germany amidst physical and moral ruins, which laid the groundwork for the European Union. Angeli Caduti reflects on how humanity’s progress often arises from moments of downfall. With a keen eye on the past as a way to access the present and future, Kiefer intertwines philosophy, poetry, and classical mythology, culminating in a contemplative display that concludes with Quasimodo’s poem.
In this exhibition, one of the great masters of our time showcases a synergy of painting, sculpture, and photography that engages the audience through allegorical narratives from ancient myths. The canvases, rich with a strong material presence, evoke the transient facets of our existence, inviting contemplation on our fallible nature. Memory emerges as a unique tool for comprehending our human dimension. Kiefer investigates inquiries such as ‘Why are we here?’ and ‘What are we striving towards?’ through his works. Through the intricately textured surfaces of his paintings, laden with both material and historical references, Kiefer crafts an imaginary realm composed of memories and reminiscences not inherently ours, which yet continue to resonate with our present.
AN EXPLORATION OF KEY THEMES OF ANSELM KIEFER
The Piano Nobile of Palazzo Strozzi features rooms on the first through fifth floors that explore mythological, epic, ancient and high-classical-culture themes, showcasing different variations of Kiefer’s aesthetic: gold and ashes, carvings and three-dimensionality.
Upon encountering a decadent aircraft wing referencing the fall of Lucifer, spectators enter the second room, a light-bathed environment filled with gold and sunflowers. Walking through it during the opening, it wasn’t rare to hear people acclaiming it as the “Sun Room”. The inclusion of sunflowers, representing the adolescent Emperor of Syrian origin, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus – also known as Heliogabalus – who sought to bring about a sun-worshipping cult, adds layers of historical and erotic symbolism to the central canvas.
This connection to the cult of the sun, especially the motif of Sol Invictus, emerges as a significant interpretation of the sunflower symbol. This element appears in various paintings and installations within the exhibition, including Danae (2016), where a lead sunflower serves as the centrepiece. In this installation, the imagery of a rain of gold falling upon the sunflower echoes the mythological tale of Zeus impregnating Danae, resulting in the birth of Perseus. A similar link to mythology is present in the artwork of Cynara (2023), in the fifth room, where, after refusing Zeus, she is transformed into an artichoke.
The celebration of classicism and its vital connection with the Renaissance persists through artworks like The School of Athens (2002) and Vor Sokrates (2022). Kiefer infuses his paintings with philosophy, offering a special tribute to the pre-Socratic thinkers whom he deeply admires for their profound exploration of matter, creating a common ground between the artists and the philosophers. In contrast, Raphael’s School of Athens, a famous fresco in the Vatican, inspires Kiefer, embodying a more traditional representation of classical philosophy.
Literature plays an important role in Kiefer’s work, and the artist makes no secret of this. In the fifth room, inspired by Raymond Roussel’s text Locus solus (1914), he creates a shrine filled with an emanation of lead, symbolising the creative process of the Kabbalistic tradition and alchemy. The shrine floats above a bumpy floor characterised by teeth, snakes, and cracks, as described in the text.
Literary references are also found in the previous room, where next to Danae (2016) stands a tribute to Norse songs: Das Balder-Lieder (2018). Mistletoe and the lead book echo Odin’s verses inside the shrine upon the sight of his deceased son. Kiefer’s familiarity with the Germanic Wagnerian identity is further evident in the seventh room, where he pays tribute to the Rhine as a foundational element of the German people’s identity.
THE IMMERSIVE INSTALLATION AT PALAZZO STROZZI
In the sixth room, there is a subtle scent of paint and solvents, so delicate that it suggests that Kiefer may have made some last-minute changes: a few brushstrokes, chisel marks, or hammer blows to those massive paintings.
Then, he allowed a contemplative silence to work its magic. Entering the room of the Verstrahlte Bilder feels like immersing oneself in a sacred dimension, as if entering the darkest and most secret part of a temple, accessible only to the cult’s administrators, its naos. The lamps placed at intervals in corners and walls resemble braziers radiating their light upwards, enhancing full and empty spaces, the points of light and opacity of the sixty paintings that occupy the room.
These 60 paintings, created over forty years, have been modified over time. Kiefer treats his works as living beings in constant evolution. They are altered and continue to evolve, experiencing new states of existence. The artist reveals in the leaflet accompanying visitors to the exhibition that some of the paintings on display have been immersed in tanks for electrolysis or left exposed to radiation, weather and the passage of time, making these agents become co-artists to his work.
To speak to and about the present, artwork must be connected in the most real dimension possible, embracing its adversities outside of the protected, crystal-bell-like environment of the artist’s studio.
The mirror in the room creates a sense of spaciousness by reflecting a night sky dotted with Kiefer’s works, illuminating the partially darkened sixth room of Palazzo Strozzi with their brilliance and ancient rigour. Even when the observers stand close to the mirror, their reflection does not appear, making them seem to disappear and become mere onlookers in a room where the paintings seem to pass judgment and admonishment. Through their textured surfaces and remnants of their history, the paintings assert that they are not just there to be admired. Under a thick layer of material, there are awe-inspiring ideals and stories. Reverential fear is the only permissible emotion, evoking a sense of mortality similar to what an ancient person might have experienced while entering the most sacred area of a temple, where the divine resides.
THE PHOTOGRAPHIC SERIES
The eighth and final room dedicated to the photographic series titled Besetzungen and Heroische Sinnbidler strips the Nazi salute of all its threatening connotations, almost making it a political gimmick. The photos are characterised by a silence that gives the gesture a grotesque and nearly ridiculous quality. The ancient ruins of Paestum, Sète, and Montpellier serve as a stark reminder of the decline of the power that once aspired to dominate the world. There is no irony here, only deliberate mockery, which exposes the deterioration of the Nazi ideology through that absurd gesture.
A sheep of the flock, one of many who followed the group and now find themselves repeating tired gestures devoid of originality. To whom is he making that gesture? Does he really think that gesture affects us spectators? Wearing his father’s military attire, Kiefer captures the ritual salute during Nazi rallies: the Sieg Heil. This photographic series also evolved into a pictorial series in the late 1960s.
The lead in the bullets loses its heaviness and turns into light paper onto which giant black and white photographs are pasted. They have all the imperfections of that period’s photography; in some parts, you can even find remnants of the glue that was used to assemble the banners. The human touch behind the assembly is not hidden, despite the dehumanisation that that gesture stands for. Horror goes hand in hand with squalor. The contrast is even more reinforced by the contrast with Salvatore Quasimodo’s poem, painted with a black handwriting on the wall: Ognuno è solo sul cuore della terra / Trafitto da un raggio di sole: / ed è subito sera (Everyone stands alone at the heart of the world / Pierced by a ray of sunlight / and suddenly it’s evening). These hermetic lines remind us the impossibility of ever avoiding the destructive power of death.
The post-war situation in Germany, with its economic boom in the Ruhr and the arrival of the Gastarbeiter, becomes a symbol of our world today. We have become desensitised to tragedy and horror despite the deaths and wars only a few kilometres from our borders. Indifference and fear of experiencing pain are preventing people from sympathising. Simply remembering to avoid repeating past mistakes is a tired formula, but Kiefer continues to believe in the immense value of memory; whether it’s the memory of ancient times or the history of the last century, it may be the only way to counteract the desensitisation of our modern era.
