Das Buch (The Book)

© Anselm Kiefer
My gallery Comment Tag Order Photography*
View comments
No comments have been posted yet.
Add a comment
Please log in to add comments.
Enter your LACMA Collections username.
Enter the password that accompanies your username.
New to our collections website? Sign up to create an account and start saving your favorites. Please note that this account is not the same as the MyLACMA account you may have for ticketing and membership transactions.
Current tags
This item has not been tagged yet.
Please log in to add tags.
Enter your LACMA Collections username.
Enter the password that accompanies your username.
New to our collections website? Sign up to create an account and start saving your favorites. Please note that this account is not the same as the MyLACMA account you may have for ticketing and membership transactions.
* Nearly 20,000 images of artworks the museum believes to be in the public domain are available to download on this site. Other images may be protected by copyright and other intellectual property rights. By using any of these images you agree to LACMA's Terms of Use.

Das Buch (The Book)

Germany, 1985
Sculpture
Lead, steel, and tin
114 x 213 1/2 x 34 in. (289.56 x 542.29 x 86.36 cm)
Modern and Contemporary Art Council Fund and Louise and Harold Held (M.85.376)
Contemporary Art
Not currently on public view

Curator Notes

Anselm Kiefer, Das Buch (The Book), M.85.376 Overview Excerpted from J. Patrice Marandel, Claudia Einecke, eds., Los Angeles County Museum of Art: European Art (Paris: Fondation Paribas, 2006). ...
Anselm Kiefer, Das Buch (The Book), M.85.376 Overview Excerpted from J. Patrice Marandel, Claudia Einecke, eds., Los Angeles County Museum of Art: European Art (Paris: Fondation Paribas, 2006). Born in 1945, [Anselm Kiefer] is a major figure among the post-World War II generation who returned to the tradition of figurative painting after the rise of conceptual art and other experimental mediums. He investigates themes of nationality and identity through the use of recurring symbolic and mythological references. His early work included performative elements, and he has created a small number of artist's books and sculptures that incorporate unusual components such as metal and straw. Kiefer is best known for his paintings. Das Buch (1980) is one of his few sculptures. It is composed of a monumental span of wings attached to an oversized book-two recurring motifs in his work. The wings may allude to the myth of Icarus (who fell to his death when he flew too close to the sun and melted the wax that held his wings together), while the book for Kiefer often symbolizes the Jewish people (often referred to as "The People of the Book"). Linked as they are here, the wings and the book constitute a powerful metaphor for the aspirations and the tragedy of the Jewish people in the twentieth century. The work embodies Kiefer's ongoing critique of German nationalism and its aftermath.
More...

Bibliography

  • Marandel, J. Patrice, and Claudia Einecke. Los Angeles County Museum of Art: European Art. Paris: Fondation BNP Paribas, 2006.

  • Powell III, Earl A., Robert Winter, and Stephanie Barron. The Robert O. Anderson Building. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1986.

  • Marandel, J. Patrice, and Claudia Einecke. Los Angeles County Museum of Art: European Art. Paris: Fondation BNP Paribas, 2006.

  • Powell III, Earl A., Robert Winter, and Stephanie Barron. The Robert O. Anderson Building. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1986.
  • Fox, Howard N. Avant-Garde In The Eighties. Los Angeles:  Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1987.
  • Price, Lorna.  Masterpieces from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.  Los Angeles:  Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1988.
  • Los Angeles County Museum of Art Members' Calendar 1990.  vol. 27-28, no. 12-1 (December, 1989-January, 1991).
  • Los Angeles County Museum of Art.  New York: Thames and Hudson, 2003.
More...