Scorched Earth
Portrait of a Planet at Breaking Point
An Alternative Reading of Anselm Kiefer’s Latest Paintings
Anselm Kiefer’s Superstrings, Runes, The Norns, Gordian Knot is currently on display in White Cube (Bermondsey, London). The exhibition presents a new installation and series of paintings by this prolific artist, exploring – among other things – the scientific concept of string theory, ancient runes and Norse mythology. White Cube states that Kiefer has aimed in this exhibition to ‘bring together theories of seemingly extraneous principles from different cultures and histories’, so that complex scientific theory is connected with wide ranging historical and mythological subject matter.
But it’s not string theory or impossibly tangled knots that we’ll focus on in this reading of the show. Here, we’ll offer an alternative take: one that sees these as paintings of a planet at breaking point. In this blog post we’ll present these paintings – when taken as a whole – as a journey toward disaster.
Ramanujan Summation (detail) 2019 | Oil, emulsion, acrylic, shellac & wood on canvas | 660 x 665 cm
Anselm Kiefer has – throughout his long career – created a world in which everything is connected. Each artwork speaks to each other artwork, each concept tied – whether mythological, historical or social. Kiefer produces art through a seemingly endless process of interweaving and re-working; his vast range of painted, collaged and sculpted works all seemingly point us toward one single end-point. Each one of his desolate landscapes lead to the same foreboding end; each scene of battle results in destruction; every long track, obscured pathway or winding road climbs the canvas to a ravaged (often claustrophobically high) horizon. Each is – we suggest – a journey toward disaster, devastated Earth, apocalypse.
Superstrings 2018–2019 | Oil, emulsion, acrylic, shellac, wood & straw on canvas | 280 x 760 cm
It’s winter, let’s start here... We know that Kiefer has sought inspiration from Norse mythology in producing this exhibition. In one collection of Old Norse writings – known as the Poetic Edda – a long, harsh winter is described. This three-year-long freeze is said to precede the end of the world and to all life on Earth. It could be this Fimbulwinter that Kiefer is depicting in his Der Gordische Knoten series (two of which are shown below). These are the palest works in the show. Still and yet tense, frost-bitten scenes upon ashen grounds, anchored by makeshift axes strapped to the canvases. Paintings of life leaving Earth, destruction of nature, the swing of man’s axe.
Der Gordische Knoten 2019 | Oil, emulsion, acrylic, shellac, wood & metal on canvas | 280 x 380 cm
Der Gordische Knoten 2019 | Oil, emulsion, acrylic, shellac, wood & metal on canvas | 280 x 380 cm
During a week when Australia is enduring catastrophic wildfires, the climate crisis surely can’t escape any viewer’s reading of these works.
Charred earth fills White Cube. The paintings are visceral and immediate. Some paintings seem to walk the viewer through the aftermaths of great forest fires. You can smell these artworks; imagine climbing up into them, walking across arid fields or snapping forest floors. Blackened branches project from monumental canvases depicting rows of burnt trees and (what might be) blackened fence posts. Torched books are stacked and bound, tied to desolate landscapes. Lines, scores, meshes and twigs connect components of paintings, saying – perhaps – that everything led to this point, every action led to this ending. These are accusatory paintings.
Die Sieben Siegel, die Geheime Offenbarung des Johannes (detail) 2019 | Oil, emulsion, acrylic, shellac, wood & burnt books on canvas | 470 x 950 cm
Die Sieben Siegel, die Geheime Offenbarung des Johannes 2019 | Oil, emulsion, acrylic, shellac, wood & burnt books on canvas | 470 x 950 cm
Die Sieben Siegel, die Geheime Offenbarung des Johannes (above) includes a haphazard row of burgundy “seals” across its sky, used by Kiefer to symbolise the Seven Seals prophecies – writings which were to remain secret until the ‘end of the age’. Upon opening a seal from the book of prophecies, a judgment is released, or an apocalyptic event occurs.
The opening of the first four seals releases the Four Horsemen, each with his own specific mission. The opening of the fifth seal releases the cries of martyrs. The sixth seal prompts earthquakes and other cataclysmic events. The seventh seal cues seven trumpeters, whose playing summons disaster.
Kiefer has placed the seals in sight here, each hovering above the vanishing point of perspective lines formed from stripped tree trunks and posts. Hung at the furthest point of the gallery, could this work signal where Kiefer’s landscapes are leading us?
We could say that Kiefer outlines the bleak future scenarios we face if we do not act to harness our warming planet. These seals might each represent a notch on our planet’s temperature gauge. Of global crop failures at a rise of 1.5-2 degrees above pre-industrial levels; mass migration and climate related deaths into the millions at 3 degrees; of an uninhabitable planet at 4-6 degrees… and that without action we’re headed for 1.5 degrees by 2025; 2 degrees by 2035 and 4-6 degrees by 2075.
Ramanujan Summation 1/12 2019 | Oil, emulsion, acrylic, shellac & wood on canvas | 660 x 665 cm
Ramanujan Summation (detail) 2019 | Oil, emulsion, acrylic, shellac & wood on canvas | 660 x 665 cm
These paintings are quite possibly the largest the gallery might accommodate. In Ramanujan Summation (above) we can even see the join where two canvases measuring 6.65m across have been re-assembled in the gallery. Many are so large, in fact, that you must crane your neck to take them in. The effect is that they overpower; their message(s) brought close – brought home – as the climate crisis should be, to the forefront of all our agendas.
Installation view featuring The Veneziano Amplitude & Die Sieben Siegel, die Geheime Offenbarung des Johannes
Die Lebenden und die Toten 2019 | Oil, emulsion, acrylic, shellac & straw on canvas | 470 x 560 cm
“Many today believe we live in a violent, tormented, bewildered, suffering and disintegrating age. A time of evil loosed and rising towards triumph, and, in places of the pained earth, of evil incoronated...”
Die Lebenden und die Toten (above) depicts an amphitheatre or parliament – a “power structure” at least – threatened by a mass of blackened tree-trunks. In light of prominent leaders’ attitudes (around the world) toward environmental stewardship, McWilliam’s words could be used as a summation, and might very well serve as a caption for this painting.
In recent months wildfires have consumed vast parts of the Amazon and Arctic alike; we’ve learned that Greenland’s ice sheet is melting at seven times the rate previously thought*; greenhouse gas emissions have continued to rise (yet President Trump served notice to quit the Paris climate agreement); in the UK the party with one of the lowest environmental commitments** has held on to power… but the latest United Nations climate talks produced one of the worst outcomes in 25 years – with the biggest polluters blocking even the suggestion of more ambitious targets.
The burnt trees threatening to bury the parliament structure in Die Lebenden und die Toten mirrors a recent occurrence in Venice. On November 12th, no sooner had the regional council of the Veneto rejected a plan to take steps in combatting climate change than its offices on the Grand Canal were flooded. Andrea Zanoni (of the Democratic party, who had supported these essential measures) said “there is no more meaningful image than a chamber being flooded … causing representatives to flee … [illustrating] inconsistency and political nullity…”
The climate crisis is knocking at our door. The extreme events of recent months might well lead us to believe we’re racing toward a ravaged future, steered by blinkered drivers.
Artworks such as Kiefer’s serve not to raise awareness but to roar it. Kiefer’s skill – his enormous creative talent – is what makes these works so bold and impactful. These are potent paintings – thick, heavily layered and expertly composed. The content (the illustrations) may be dark, but the application of paint and harmony of materials is a joy to behold.
Entry Points
Two key Kiefer artworks led to our interpretation of this show. The first was Kiefer’s huge, precariously stacked installation of canvases in the Royal Academy (Ages of the World, 2014). The canvases each represented a different geologic epoch; each one caked in organic debris and detritus to make a single tower – which could be taken as our current era, the Anthropocene.
The second was Kiefer’s Florence flood installation – a topic we touched upon in a previous article. Alfabeti Sommersi in Palazzo Vecchio (2016) explored a historic environmental event, asking the question “what if”? What if Florence (or indeed any of our cultural landmarks) flooded again as environmental extremes become ever more frequent.
Footnotes
*Greenland ice losses have septupled and are now in line with its highest sea-level scenario. Total ice melt in the region is now 250-280 billion tons per year (according to data from the Ice Sheet Mass Balance Inter-Comparison Exercise and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change). At this rate, Greenland alone could contribute about half a foot to ocean levels by 2100.
**Friends of the Earth worked to report on how the UK’s four main political parties scored with regard to tackling the climate and ecological emergency. The Labour party came out on top, scoring 33/45; followed by Greens at 31/45; the Liberal Democrats at 30/45; and lastly the winning party, the Conservatives, at a shocking 5.5/45.
Links
Life after warming | UN says climate genocide is coming – it’s actually worse than that
2°C beyond the limit | On land, Australia’s rising heat is ‘Apocalyptic’ – in the ocean, it’s worse
As Australia’s fires continue | Australia is committing climate suicide
UN climate talks: Madrid, December 2019 | Few commitments and a ‘lost’ opportunity
99 ways climate change impacted Earth in 2019 | A list of climate-relevant news that has transpired in 2019
Superstrings, Runes, The Norns, Gordian Knot runs until January 26th in Bermondsey, London
Artworks © Anselm Kiefer | Photographs by David Cass taken in White Cube (December 2019), these are used here under the 'Fair Use' act, ‘for non-profit educational purposes’. A La Luz is a not-for-profit venture and images are used to offer insight and raise awareness | Images may be shared without modification | Please contact us if you wish to suggest an edit to any of the above, or other areas of our site | The text here is the interpretation of A La Luz and has not been endorsed by any other party
