#sternenfall

Starfall

Anselm Kiefer, Sternenfall [Falling Stars], 1998, mixed media on canvas, Blanton Museum of Art, Austin.

I work at the Blanton Museum of Art, and this online image in no way does justice to this massive and gorgeous artwork. It's one of those pieces you have to see in person to appreciate the meticulous detail and grandeur that it inspires.

Kiefer was born in post-war Germany, and his work similarly explores the fundamental existence of human beings and man's confrontation with things like mythology, history, and the cosmos. As one press release writes, "Through the emotional, questioning character of his work – fundamental components of the human experience and condition – Anselm Kiefer sheds new light on the foundations of our civilisation, penetrating history's darkest transgressions. Refuting the processes of collective amnesia, Kiefer finds new resources to confront the unrepresentable in a series of dazzling visions designed to implicate the viewer in the reconstruction of the fabric of memory and reason."

           Anselm Kiefer b. Donaueschingen, Germany, 1945 Sternenfall [Falling Stars], 1998 Mixed media on canvas

I’ve always found it rather difficult to talk about art at length, or to explain why anything aesthetically pleases me.  The aesthete, Kierkegaard would say, lives in immediacy, and as such the power of aesthetic pleasure precedes the mediation of reflection, and is therefore somewhat difficult to talk about.  Maybe that mysterious force which, as Kant sees it, selects who will be geniuses works also on the beholders of those geniuses’ art, making its appeal equally ineffable.  All that notwithstanding o the best of my ability, I'll try to explain what it is about Anselm Kiefer’s Sternenfall that stirs me so deeply.

 To begin with, the sheer size of Sternenfall, which means “falling stars,” is overwhelming.  The massive installation takes up the whole height of the wall in the gallery, and stretches out on either side with equal proportions.  It is also uniquely three-dimensional which, though common in sculpture and so-called ‘public art’ is more rare in art that is presented on canvas.  The bumpy surface looks to be made with mud, tree bark, sunflower seeds, and other unusual media, imbued with a rich tension of deep, majestic blues and purples, and bland beiges and whites which combine to give the effect of swaths of stardust in the sky, like you might see in the open country by night.  The “Little Dipper” and “Draco” constellations are easily apparent, and each star is labeled by a sort of barcode-esque sequence of numbers and letters.  On the ground, just beneath the installation, are many plastic strips with similar sequences, which I believe represent fallen stars.