Press release
For immediate release

Montréal, November 1, 2005 - Gigantic, monumental, colossal—words aren’t big enough to describe the work of Anselm Kiefer. A major event in itself, the Anselm Kiefer exhibition will stand as a highlight in Montréal’s cultural life and, no doubt, in the history of the Musée. FromFebruary 11 to April 30, 2006, the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal presents Anselm Kiefer: Heaven and Earth.

The exhibition, the artist’s first in North America in nearly twenty years and the first ever in Canada, contains more than sixty works produced from 1969 to 2005: paintings, some of them measuring up to six metres, books whose pages are made of roof tiles recovered from Cologne Cathedral, sculptures weighing close to three tons, and works on paper. This exceptional presentation will fill almost all of the museum’s exhibition galleries.

Conceived as a thematic survey, Heaven and Earth reveals the intertwined layers of meaning in Kiefer’s work of the past three and a half decades exploring the dialogue betweenheaven and earth. It ponders a civilization in search of spirituality but grappling with the weight of its human condition, beyond cultures and religions. Book with Wings, for example, lifts you up with its wings at the same time as it pins you down to earth with its thousands of kilograms of weight.

Kiefer is himself a monument in contemporary art. Born in Germany just as World War II was ending, he is considered one of the most important and relevant artists of our day. Now based in Barjac, France, he continues to explore the fundamental experiences of human existence through mythology, history and time. To convey these rich historical and philosophical metaphors, Kiefer makes use of highly symbolic materials such as clay, ash, gold leaf, seeds, dried plants and lead. Be prepared for a physical and even metaphysical experience of staggering power.

 

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