Anselm Kiefer (b. 1945)

“Painting, for me, is not just about creating an illusion. I don’t paint to present an image of something. I paint only when I have received an apparition, a shock, when I want to transform something. Something that possesses me, and from which I have to deliver myself. Something I need to transform, to metabolize, and which gives me a reason to paint.” (A. Kiefer North Adams, Press Release: Anselm Kiefer, Mass MOCA, 20 October 2007)