The Authentication Of Artistic Language And Artist Identity

This dissertation selects the paintings of Anselm Kiefer and Georg Baselitz as the subject of study. It approaches to the two artists’ works through the isomorphism between artistic language and artist identity, so as to go deep into the German post-war art and provide a reference to the young artists, who want to accept multiculture, recognize their cultural traditions,and enrich their own artistic language.This dissertation first introduces the formerly study of Kiefer and Baselitz’s art, the significance of this topic, research methods and orientation, as well as the concept of artistic language and artists "identity" in the introduction. Then the first chapter includes the orientation of the artists in the art history, German visual art tradition and the background of culture identity. The second chapter further introduces the era’s artistic condition, and the similarities and differences of their artist identities. In the third, also the last chapter, the author selects the four themes:"the controversial figure","the painted ruin","the visual border" and "the spiritual material" as the clues to link Kiefer and Baselitz’s art, then authenticate their artistic language with the artist identities.Finally, the dissertation gets to the conclusion that as Heidegger said "Language is flowers of the mouth", the "flowers" of Kiefer and Baselitz’s artistic language is rooted in the "earth" of history and cultural traditions. They regard the artist identity as the individual to pursue personal existence and recall national culture tradition. So the artistic languages they developed have built the bridge between the far ago and nowadays’art.