The Angels of Rebellion: Anselm Kiefer at Palazzo Strozzi

ART

Anselm Kiefer at the Palazzo Strozzi: The angels who were expelled from heaven because of their rebellion against God.

A symbolism

April 2024

Anselm Kiefer: Engelssturz (Fall of the Angel) 2022–2023 Copyright : © Anselm Kiefer Photo : Georges Poncet

Until 21 July, the Palazzo Strozzi in Florence is showing the exhibition "Fallen Angels" by German artist Anselm Kiefer. Works of art have a hard time holding their own against the impressive Renaissance architecture of the palace. In this exhibition, however, they enter into an impressive dialogue. Kiefer has even created a new work especially for the inner courtyard of the palace. The term "Fallen Angels" refers to the angels who were expelled from heaven because of their rebellion against God. For Kiefer, this is a symbolic representation of humanity, which he expresses in the exhibition through painting, sculpture, installation and photography.

No artist has documented the Second World War more comprehensively than Kiefer

The artist has a long relationship with Italy and in particular with the Palazzo Strozzi, which he first visited at the age of 17. When he became successful as a painter, Kiefer wanted to leave Germany and initially looked for a suitable property in Italy to use as a studio. Instead, the artist later settled in Barjac, France, where he established the famous Eschaton Foundation on his estate La Ribaute. In conversation with the curator of the exhibition Arturo Galansino Croissy, Director General of Palazzo Strozzi since 2015, Kiefer confessed that he had always imagined Barjac to be like a small Italian village. "The square of an Italian town is always immaculate, that is the essence of Italian architecture.", he said.

No artist has documented the Second World War more comprehensively than Kiefer. Even French President Emmanuel Macron commissioned works from Kiefer for the Paris Hall of Fame. These works to commemorate the Second World War in the Panthéon in Paris show installations and monumental landscapes of scorched earth, where the greatest of the French nation are buried. In 2007, Kiefer was the first German artist to exhibit at the Grand Palais, and in 2011 he was the first German visual artist to be appointed to the Collège de France.

Kiefer turned away from Catholicism, although he comes from a strictly devout Catholic Priestly family, and has since mainly used the visual language of Judaism. This change took place during his exhibition in Jerusalem in 1984, when he realised that the wealth of literature on the Jewish religion surpassed that of Catholicism. Nevertheless, references to Catholicism always appear in his works.