Winter Landscape

Anselm Kiefer German

Not on view

Contemplation of wild or "sublime" landscapes was a hallmark of Romantic-era picture making, and the earth itself served as a powerful symbol of the German nationalistic body and its domain, promoted during the Nazi period under the slogan Blut und Boden (Blood and Soil). In this watercolor, however, the earth has been roughly plowed and blanketed with snow, and the spare trees in the background lend a bleakness to the scene. The disembodied head of a woman rises above the field, spotted with blood-red watercolor; this martyr is a personification of the land, now stained by the events of human history.

Winter Landscape, Anselm Kiefer (German, born Donaueschingen, 1945), Watercolor, gouache, and graphite on paper

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