Albright-Knox Art Gallery presents Anselm Kiefer: Forget-Me-Not an exhibition on view November 17, 2013–November 2, 2014.
Anselm Kiefer: Forget-Me-Not explores the interplay of history, identity, and landscape in the work of one of the most important artists of our time. Several major works by Kiefer (German, born 1945) form the core of the exhibition. These include the Albright-Knox’s newly acquired der Morgenthau Plan (The Morgenthau Plan), 2012, a monumental panorama inundated with wildflowers that proliferate in the landscape surrounding the artist’s studio complex in Barjac, France; die Milchstrasse (The Milky Way), 1985–87, an iconic depiction of a desolate, barren field; and Von der Maas bis an die Memel, von der Etsch bis an den Belt (From the Maas to the Memel, from the Etsch to the Belt), 2011–12, a seascape of epic proportions on loan to the museum. These works, in their layered and complex iconographies, exemplify the artist’s career-long explorations of nationalism, identity, and cultural memory. As an ensemble, they invoke the politics of landscape—the precarious relationship between nature, history, and aesthetics.
Complementing Kiefer’s works will be an installation of paintings and works on paper from the Albright-Knox’s Collection that likewise feature landscape as a means of exploring a multiplicity of subjects and significations. The works in this section of the exhibition, by Bernd and Hilla Becher, Jean-Marc Bustamante, Sandra Cinto, Gustave Courbet, Willie Doherty, George Inness, Emil Nolde, Sophie Ristelhueber, Hiroshi Sugimoto, and others, provide a context for exploring three salient themes in Kiefer’s practice that also reflect the modern landscape tradition: The Political Landscape, The Psychology of Landscape, and The Transcendent Sublime.
This exhibition is conceived and initiated by Director Janne Sirén and organized by Chief Curator Douglas Dreishpoon and Curator for the Collection Holly E. Hughes.
Albright-Knox Art Gallery
1285 Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo, New York 14222
716.882.8700
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