Anselm Kiefer, Palazzo Strozzi review Rebellious angels and radiation-paintings mark a return to form

By Jackie Wullschläger

In Florence’s Palazzo Strozzi, German king of spectacle Anselm Kiefer meets his match. His exceptional exhibition Fallen Angels begins in the vast colonnaded courtyard with archangel Michael, a huge dynamic figure with outstretched wings, swooping across an eight-metre translucent gold ground. Below, rebel angels plummet into Kiefer’s chaotic charcoal, shellac and fabric surfaces — our own dark material world, animated by the crowds thronging this inner square in the city centre.