Live Auction 12154Post-War and Contemporary Art Afternoon Session
Anselm Kiefer (b. 1945)
Lot 421 Property from a Distinguished Private Collection

Anselm Kiefer (b. 1945)

Die Kunst geht knapp nicht unter (The Art almost does not drown)

Closed11 May 2016

Price Realised

USD 221,000

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Anselm Kiefer (b. 1945)
Die Kunst geht knapp nicht unter (The Art almost does not drown)
titled ‘die Kunst geht knapp nicht unter.’(upper edge)
watercolor, oil and ink on paper
9 3/8 x 7 7/8 in. (23.8 x 19.8 cm.)
Executed in 1975. This work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity issued by the studio of Anselm Kiefer and signed by the artist.

Private collection Germany, acquired directly from the artist
Galerie Eberhard Lüdke, Cologne
Galerie Zellermayer, Berlin
Private collection, Germany

Specialist note

“Kiefer’s art is the unique expression of a highly personal situation prompted by his interests and consciousness and yielding images in which historic awareness, metaphysical longings and the notion of human subordinacy to existence constitute the material of the predominating question: how to render this human experience into image.” (W. Beeren, quoted in ‘Anselm Kiefer: Recuperation of History,’ in Anselm Kiefer: Bilder 1986-1980, exh. cat., Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 1986-1987, p. 8)