Anselm Kiefer Studied

This dissertation is intended to select Anselm Kiefer,an outstanding contemporary German artist,as the subject of study.Kiefer's works,whatever forms they take,such as painting,act,photograph,installation and sculpture,are imbued with his introspection insight on history and culture.This dissertation is attempting to reveal the outside and inner causes of Kiefer's introspective thought by studying the historical and cultural background of Kiefer's times.Kiefer's interests in knowledge refer to the fields of law,religion,philosophy,literature and pre-science culture, which play a significant role in the formation of Kiefer's artistic thinking.Moreover, Kiefer's wide range knowledge provides him with the resources for his unique iconographic system.Kiefer's art has gone beyond the fetters of races and religions by his concerns and questions about the fate and culture of human being.Kiefer's art carries weight in current hedonistic culture.This dissertation is not arranged in linear course according to time,but to interpret Kiefer's art by placing them in different coordinates.Four parts are included here,the first is about the attitude toward the history of World Warâ…¡held by German,which constitutes the background of Kiefer's art.The second is a deep analysis on the resources of Kiefer's artistic thinking.The third treats with the relationship between words and images,literature and icons in Kiefer's works.The forth is about the context of a certain icon's presence, and the process of its formation and its transmutation by citing several important icons of Kiefer's art as example.