Stefan!

1974

Not on view

Stefan George (1868–1933), whose head emerges here from the top of a tall peak, was a poet whose later works deplore the absence of heroism and condemn what he perceived to be the evils of contemporary life. Despite this Nietzschian interest in the will to power, George was repulsed by National Socialism and died in self-imposed exile in Switzerland. Nonetheless he was subsequently embraced by the Nazis as a national literary hero—an example of their exploitation of a German cultural figure for their own purposes. Stefan! shows Kiefer's interest in redeeming such figures from the ignominy of exploitation while at the same time pointing to the charged complexities of German cultural heritage.

Artwork Details

Title: Stefan!
Artist: Anselm Kiefer (German, born Donaueschingen, 1945)
Date: 1974
Medium: Watercolor, gouache, and colored pencil on paper
Dimensions: 9 3/8 x 12 5/8 in. (23.8 x 32.1 cm)
Classification: Drawings
Credit Line: Denise and Andrew Saul Fund, 1995
Object Number: 1995.14.9
Rights and Reproduction: © Anselm Kiefer
Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art

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

Design for Angels of Praise window, Louis C. Tiffany American, Watercolor, gouache, colored pencil, silver gelatin photograph on paper, and graphite, adhered to off-white wove paper cut into three rectangular windows and two medallions mounted on warm grey secondary support., American — Design for Angels of Praise window
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