🇬🇧 London Exhibition Diary | "From the Ashes" | Anselm Kiefer
This week, I experienced Anselm Kiefer’s latest works—a radical deconstruction of Van Gogh’s sunflowers and wheatfields, created as the artist nears 80.✨ If Van Gogh’s art revealed life’s epiphanies to his era, Kiefer’s critique forces us to confront what survival truly means. His canvases deny romanticized beauty—instead, we see scorched earth, charred flora, and gilded fragments drifting like post-war smoke… or perhaps, like the last embers of faith and hope. Above the pieces, Greek myth bleeds into text: the tale of Clytie, a nymph who loved the sun god Helios so fiercely, she transformed into a sunflower. Do you envy her? At least she burned with passion—a life consumed, yet complete.🎫 My favorite? "Steigend, Steigend, Sinke Nieder (Rising, Rising, Falling Down)"—a sunflower suspended in a glass box, descending from heaven to seek light and meaning in our world. The answer to resurrection isn’t in books; it gazes outward, reminding us: we are the answer. Kiefer’s brilliance lies in art as societal mirror. His introspection builds a sustainable "order"—one where survivors of tragedy no longer crave sunlit illusions. To face darkness, to understand the weight of suppression and rebirth—this is maturity.🏛️ Perhaps our era isn’t sorrowful enough. Our grief doesn’t truly shake the world. We linger in apathetic voids— Not anguished enough, not resolute enough. Hearts beat, yet lack love or conviction; Selves fracture, avoiding the abyss; Where is the courage to rise from ashes? The exhibition’s truth: Wildfires end—spring returns. 📍 White Cube Mason’s Yard, SW1Y 6BU 📅 Until Aug 16 #LondonArt #ExhibitionDiary #ArtCritique #AnselmKiefer #VanGoghReimagined #ArtAndPhilosophy #ContemporaryArt #DarkSublime
