Erotik Im Fernen Osten Oder

Anselm Kiefer is best known for his brooding forests and somber fields encrusted with debris, and for his haunted monuments reeking of the Nazi past. This series of delicately executed watercolorslandscapes and a surprising sequence of erotic nudesreveals a wholly different side to the artist.

In 1974 Kiefer traveled to the coast of Norway. Three years later, using photographs he had taken during his trip as an aide-memoire, he painted Erotik im Fernen Osten oder: Transition from cool to warm, a work that incorporates his deepest aesthetic and philosophical concerns. In these lyrically expressive seascapes and landscapes, the icebergs and frigid skies of Norwegian winters are rendered in deep blue, violet, and purple tones. As the sequence gives way to lush female nudes, the palette grows brighter, and there is a virtual explosion of color and form that evokes seasonal changes. The spontaneity and simplicity of these images are expressions of Kiefer’s warning against intellectual, as opposed to visceral, understanding.

With splendid reproductions of each of the series’ sixty-five watercolors, as well as images from two other books by the artist, this publication demonstrates Kiefer’s brilliant use of the book form as a means of artistic expression. 95 color illustrations.