Anselm Kiefer At MASS MoCA (i’m still in love)
photo from the MASS MoCA website
Anselm Kiefer: Sculpture and Paintings
through October 2009
MASS MoCA
North Adams, MA
An Anselm Kiefer work up close and in the flesh is nothing short of monumental both in scale and in it’s awe-inspiring presence. My knowledge of this was happily refreshed a couple of months back when I finally made it to the Kiefer exhibition at Mass MoCA. The show was just as gorgeous, exquisite and overwhelming as I expected.
There was one point when I was looking at one of the newer enormous field landscapes with the scattered blooms which initially felt very bleak. There were three of them, one on each wall at the far end of a long room with lots of late afternoon sunlight pouring in through a grid of windows at the opposite end. All of a sudden, this orange-y glow crept up from the periphery of my vision. It took a second to realize it was an effect of the blooms in the painting. And then suddenly, I felt how warm and hopeful these works actually were. They were loaded with the usual sense of devastation and melancholy but they contained something that felt new and promising as well. The impact was sublime like coming out of a long, brutal experience to the relief you’d nearly abandoned. It made me teary and my heart felt like the Grinch’s when it grew three sizes.
I know I know, I’m a dork. But I’m a happy dork.
unfortunately, photos were not allowed in the galleries and so sadly, I have none to share. Of course, photos don’t come anywhere near describing the overwhelming presence of the work anyway, so just go see it if you’re able.
-Steph Gerolimatos
shhh
January 17, 2009 at 4:15 pm
Keifer’s work is simply awe inspiring. I attended his retrospective at SF MOMA a few years back, and following through the progression from his simpler charcoal works into his lead and straw laden works and finally ending up at the literally larger than life stuff, each room added a dimension worthy of its own career. It may be the most vicerally tactile work I’ve ever seen- having more physicality than any other art I’ve seen. Simply amazing. I wish they kept shows of his perpetually touring for people to experience because you really can’t understand until you are in their presence.
January 19, 2009 at 11:59 am
oh i remember that. i was so disappointed the show didn’t come close enough for me to see it!
“I wish they kept shows of his perpetually touring for people to experience because you really can’t understand until you are in their presence.”
you’re so right.
whenever i see his work i imagine the people who have to do the packing and transport. moving the work must be such a complex undertaking. all those brick-sized chunks of paint just waiting for the perfect moment to drop off the canvas!
February 28, 2009 at 2:49 am
[...] Gummer’s Primary Separation and Bruce Odland & Sam Auinger’s Harmonic Bridge. The Kiefer show will be up through October. Even if there hadn’t been anything new, I’d have gone just [...]