Virginia Woolf

ca. 1975

Not on view

This two-part work pays homage to the English writer Virginia Woolf (1882–1941), whose novels Kiefer and his wife, Julia (who probably served as the model for the dreaming head above), admired. In the lower sheet, fire and water are combined, as they are at the end of Wagner's monumental Ring Cycle—here, in the form of a tiny ship aflame at sea. Rapture and watery death—references, perhaps, to Woolf's seaside novel To the Lighthouse (1927) or her suicide by drowning or perhaps the German army's failed attempt to cross the English Channel during "Operation Sea Lion" (1940)—are explored in this subtle, evocative pairing.

Artwork Details

Title: Virginia Woolf
Artist: Anselm Kiefer (German, born Donaueschingen, 1945)
Date: ca. 1975
Medium: Watercolor, gouache, and graphite on paper
Dimensions: a: 14 1/8 × 18 3/4 in. (35.8 × 47.7 cm)
b: 11 5/8 × 16 7/16 in. (29.5 × 41.7 cm)
Classification: Drawings
Credit Line: Purchase, Lila Acheson Wallace Gift, 1995
Object Number: 1995.14.20a, b
Rights and Reproduction: © Anselm Kiefer
Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art

More Artwork

By Anselm Kiefer

In the same medium

From the same time and place

Böhmen liegt am Meer (Bohemia Lies by the Sea), Anselm Kiefer German, Oil, emulsion, shellac, charcoal, and powdered paint on burlap — Böhmen liegt am Meer (Bohemia Lies by the Sea)
Anselm Kiefer
1996

Armor, Steel, leather, German, possibly Lower Saxony — Armor
German, possibly Lower Saxony
ca. 1540–50 and later

Self-Portrait, Egon Schiele Austrian, Watercolor, graphite, and gouache on paper — Self-Portrait
Egon Schiele
1911

Untitled, Anselm Kiefer German, Woodcut and white and black acrylic paints with shellac on paper on canvas — Untitled
Anselm Kiefer
1996

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