Last weekend, Kristie and I hopped into our car and drove to Montreal for a day… well overnight anyway. She had some shopping on her mind, but the main reason we went was to make Ben Van Dyk jealous. In other words, we went to see the Anselm Kiefer exhibit at the Contemporary Art Museum in Montreal.
Kiefer is a German born artist, who resides in France. He works in sculpture, drawing and painting but mostly in a combination of the three.
His work is massive and expansive. Everything is huge and deep and meaningful. Huge swaths of charcoal, hay, lead, tar and sand cover every inch of canvas to make an incredibly visceral work of art. His subject matter is powerful and heavy. There are no fluff pieces here meant to make you smile. Each piece knocks you over the head with a large boulder of lead (which there are many) and picks you back up only to knock you down again.
It was truly remarkable. It’s heavy stuff and takes it’s toll on you as you go through the exhibit. Kiefer doesn’t really hold anything back and you become very immersed in his psyche (which Kristie was actually concerned about).
I’m not one for over analyzing art work. Delving into the art more would require a face-to-face discussion to really grasp it’s meaning and again, I’m not the one for that. But if you have a chance, visit Montreal (apparently the shopping’s good too) and see this exhibit before it closes on April 30, 2006.
For more information and some actual writings on the show: Anselm Kiefer – Heaven and Earth
