Anselm Kiefer. The Seven Heavenly Palaces 2004-2015

The name of the site specific installation “The Seven Heavenly Palaces” – conceived and presented for the opening of Pirelli HangarBicocca in 2004 and based on a project by Lia Rumma – was drawn from the palaces described in the ancient Hebrew treatise “Sefer Hechalot”, the “Book of Palaces/ Sanctuaries,” which dates back to the 4th-5th centuries A.D. The volume narrates the symbolic path of spiritual initiation that anyone who wants to become closer to God must undertake. 

More than mere functional value, for Kiefer the use of this metal has symbolic meaning: in fact, lead is traditionally considered the material of melancholy. “The Seven Heavenly Palaces” represents a point of arrival for Kiefer’s entire artistic production, synthesizing his principle themes and projecting them into a new, timeless dimension: they contain an interpretation of ancient Hebrew religion; representation of the ruins of Western Civilization following the Second World War; and projections into a possible future through which the artist invites us to face the present. 

Thanks to this new display, Kiefer’s artistic practice is further explored through painting, highlighting considerations central to his poetics, such as the relationship between man and nature; or references to the history of thought and western philosophy. Visitors can pass through the space of the “towers” and experience new works, exploring novel perspectives born of the dialogue between the paintings and the installation.

“Melancholia” is distinguished most of all by the completion of the last covering, a polyhedron taken from the engraving of the same name created in 1514 by Albrecht Dürer, which became one of the artist’s most famous allegorical images. Artists were defined as “those born under Saturn,” since people believed that the planet of melancholy represented the artist’s contemplative, ambivalent character. 

“Ararat” is named after the mountain in Asia Minor where, according to Biblical tradition, Noah’s ark finally came to rest. The ark is represented by a small model in lead present at the top of the tower, symbolizing a vehicle of peace and salvation, but also a warship, and therefore a vehicle of destruction and desolation.

 

The choice of lead, a material through which light cannot pass (and therefore prevents the production of any images), can be interpreted in different ways: from the Nazi attempt to erase Jewish culture and ethnic minorities, to the iconoclastic battle that periodically runs through Western culture, to the Byzantine era all the way to the Lutheran era and the conception, often cited by Kiefer, that “every work of art cancels out those that precede it”.

These two towers are disseminated at the base of meteorites that have been numbered with molten lead in irregular shapes, symbolizing the creation myth presented in several Cabala texts. The two towers are equally complementary at their crowns, culminating with writing in neon light detailing respectively the letters “JH” and “WH” which, when united according to the rules of Hebrew phonetics, form the world “Yahweh”, an unpronounceable term in the Jewish tradition.

The “Torre dei Quadri Cadenti” owes its name once again to the objects present from the top to the base of the construction: a series of wood and lead frames containing thick sheets of glass, many of which have been broken at irregular intervals. Surprisingly the frames do not display any images. Once again, Anselm Kiefer deals with the theme of missing imagery and its potentially multiple cross-references.

The title of this painting is taken from Jaipur, a city Kiefer visited during his numerous travels throughout India. The canvas portrays a nocturnal landscape: on the lower section the artist has painted an architectural structure that reminds the viewer of an inverted pyramid; above, a starry sky. The constellations visible in the sky, connected with lines, are numbered utilizing NASA’s classification system. From a thematic point of view, this artwork appears to be the one most closely connected with “The Seven Heavenly Palaces”: the pyramid becomes a symbol of man’s vain attempt to move closer to the divine. 

“Alchemie” is made up of two canvases set side-by-side that portray a dry, arid landscape in which the earth appears entirely sterile. A “rainfall” of sunflower seeds is the only sign of life and the hope of regrowth. The element connecting the canvases is a set of balance scales containing salt on one dish and sunflower seeds on the other: opposing symbols of sterility and fertility. These are a clear citation of the artist’s interest in alchemy, an esoteric science that aimed to transform lead into gold, and an allegory of man’s tension toward perfection and the divine. 

Anselm Kiefer was born in Donaueschingen (Germany) in 1945, and dedicated himself to art after studying law and literature. His first works, realized during the second half of the 1960s, were influenced by the gestures and artwork of Joseph Beuys. 

In 1971 Kiefer realized his first large-scale painting, in which the artist reinterprets recent German history through references to philosophy and Teutonic mythology. His interest in alchemy led him to insert symbolic and natural materials like lead, sand, straw and seeds into his works.