A focus on Anselm Kiefer in Seoul The exhibition to see ahead of Korea’s biggest week for art this year

By Shin Min-hee

“Wer jetzt kein Haus hat (Whoever has no house now),” a show of 77-year-old German artist Anselm Kiefer’s new works, starts Thursday at Thaddaeus Ropac. 

With 13 new paintings that were specially made to fit the gallery’s Seoul branch and one installation piece of an unfinished mud-brick house, these new artworks are dedicated to the season of autumn.

The paintings have a gloomy atmosphere owing to the dark, misty colors, but are also highlighted with gold textures and layering of paint that adds a rich sense of depth and density.  

The inspiration comes from poems, which are regarded as “buoys” to the artist as “I swim to them, from one to the other. In between, without them, I am lost,” he was quoted as saying by the gallery.
 
The exhibit’s title was inspired by the Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926) and his 1902 poem “Herbsttag,” or “Autumn Day.” 
 
Kiefer's paintings were also inspired by Hyde Park in London, as the artist marveled at how the “explosion of colors” on an autumn day were “overwhelming” and “of such intensity that I fetched the camera from the hotel and went to work.”
 
The mud-brick installation, which can be perceived as both half-built or half-destroyed, is a reminder of Kiefer’s post-war Germany days as a child.
 
“Destruction and decay has always been part of his work,” Thaddaeus Ropac, the founder of the gallery said during the preview on Wednesday. “The important thing of his work is also the materials. Metal is a recurring element in his works because it is able to carry all the weight of human history.”
 
With the added touch of gold in the paintings, Kiefer’s paintings are like yin and yang, as they encompass both decay and renewal simultaneously.