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Untitled (Heroic Symbols)

ca. 1969
Not on view
In 1969, near the end of his studies at the art academy in Karlsruhe, Germany, Kiefer staged photographs of himself in paramilitary costumes, at times in Romantic-style landscapes throughout Western Europe. Wearing jodhpurs and boots or a dark green coat, Kiefer reenacted the Nazi salute that was, by nature of Kiefer's own Germanness and by the horrendous history such a gesture invoked, a highly provocative subject. Kiefer's ironic title derives from the article "Heroic Symbols" that appeared in a 1943 issue of the propaganda journal Art of the German Reich. Published by the National Socialist party between 1937 and 1944, the magazine was one of the artist's sources of Fascist imagery.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Untitled (Heroic Symbols)
  • Artist: Anselm Kiefer (German, born Donaueschingen, 1945)
  • Date: ca. 1969
  • Medium: Watercolor and opaque watercolor with charcoal on paper
  • Dimensions: 14 1/8 × 17 7/8 in. (35.8 × 45.4 cm)
  • Classification: Drawings
  • Credit Line: Purchase, Lila Acheson Wallace Gift, 1995
  • Object Number: 1995.14.2
  • Rights and Reproduction: © Anselm Kiefer
  • Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art

More Artwork

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Morgenthau Plan, Anselm Kiefer German, Acrylic, emulsion, oil, and shellac on inkjet prints mounted on canvas
Morgenthau Plan
Anselm Kiefer
2012
Let a Thousand Flowers Bloom, Anselm Kiefer German, Gouache, sand, ash and charcoal on two torn and pasted photographs
Let a Thousand Flowers Bloom
Anselm Kiefer
2000
Autumn Forest, Anselm Kiefer German, Watercolor, opaque watercolor, and graphite on papers
Autumn Forest
Anselm Kiefer
1970
Your Golden Hair, Margarete, Anselm Kiefer German, Watercolor, gouache, and acrylic on paper
Your Golden Hair, Margarete
Anselm Kiefer
1980
Wild Emperor, Anselm Kiefer German, Watercolor and acrylic on paper
Wild Emperor
Anselm Kiefer
1975

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