Strike

Anselm Kiefer German

Not on view

Kiefer discovered lead as an artistic medium while repairing an old washing machine. It appealed to the artist because of its different applications, whether by alchemists who try to turn it into gold or by medical professionals who use it to protect patients from the harmful effects of X-rays. In Strike, Kiefer combined lead with a photograph made from exposed film that he had deliberately left too long in the fixative bath during the development process, partially destroying its emulsion and producing streaks. He aligned the lead cloud form with one of those streaks, creating a kind of lightning bolt that links the sky and the nearly abstract landscape.

Strike, Anselm Kiefer (German, born Donaueschingen, 1945), Lead, shellac, synthetic adhesive and graphite on photograph, mounted on canvas

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