Anselm Kiefer and his Hortus Conclusus series of works
This artist emphasizes the allegorical aspects of landscape in his Hortus Conclusus exhibition title. It caugth my attention as the word in Latin refers to an “enclosed garden”. I look at his works as it is rooted in symbolism and traditions of East Asian painting, where the work is more about responses to nature and symbolisism is about creation and destruction, history and memory. In the work I see the cycles of life, growth and renewal are themes that come to the front. He works with rich colours, uses scrip from mythology and or poetry, as well as straw, gold leaf, copper, as layers in the work. The paintings are expressive with thick layers of paint textures and I believe he is a master to play with time and space.
Wheat field with reaper (2014) pays homage to Vincent van Gogh, whose life and paintings are a touchstone for Kiefer. Its composition refers to his predecessor’s final masterpiece, Wheatfield with Crows (1890), with its densely textured surface, diverging paths, and high, inaccessible horizon line. Like Van Gogh, Kiefer emphasizes the expressive potentials of landscape painting, encompassing aspects of both natural forces and the human condition through his engagement with the hortus conclusus tradition.