Art Lovers discussion

The child of night, the craven Nibelung,

That looks very much like the work of Anselm Kiefer.

Haha, you're too good for this game Ruth!
You're correct it is from an installation called Walhalla, date 2016.

Maybe for the next one you could give yourself a handicap of a couple of hours ? Give other members a chance ;-)

I'll post the lyrics first, its from Die Walküre (The Valkyrie) by Wagner:

Den Nacht gebar, der bange Nibelung,
Alberich, brach ihren Bund;
er fluchte der Lieb' und gewann durch den Fluch
des Rheines glanzendes Gold,
und mit ihm maßlose Macht.
Den Ring, den er schuf, entriß ich ihm listig;
doch nicht dem Rhein
gab ich ihn zurück:
mit ihm bezahlt ich
Walhalls Zinnen,
der Burg, die Riesen mir bauten,
aus der ich der Welt nun gebot.

The child of night, the craven Nibelung,
Alberich, broke from its bonds;
for love he foreswore and so won by his oath
the glist'ning gold of the Rhine,
and with it unmeasured might.
The ring that he wrought I craftily won me,
but to the Rhine gave it not again:
with it I paid the price of Walhall,
the home the giants had built me,
wherefrom I now ruled all the world.

I recognize the name, but never would have come up with it.

Chris wrote: "I recognize the name, but never would have come up with it."

You're not alone Chris, a year ago I wouldn't either. But now I realy like his work, here's some more pics:




















Anselm Kiefer has spent his life in the long shadow of the Third Reich. He was born in Germany in 1945 and grew up in a defeated Fatherland, in the desolate aftermath of the Second World War. Germany was disgraced and devastated. Hitler’s dreadful legacy hung over every aspect of daily life.
Yet when Kiefer was growing up the Holocaust was never mentioned. Kiefer thought this was crazy and through his art he set out to change it. Today the crimes of the Third Reich are acknowledged throughout Germany. Kiefer was part of a generation of German artists who forced Germany to confront its past.
Today, Kiefer is one of Europe’s most renowned and respected artists. His 2014 retrospective at London’s Royal Academy was a sensation, and so was his retrospective at the Pompidou in Paris this year. However, specific shows like this one are a lot closer to his heart.
Its title is Walhalla, after the Walhalla Monument in Bavaria, a bombastic mausoleum built to honour the national heroes of German history. Like so much of Kiefer’s work, this title has many meanings. Valhalla is the Viking heaven, reserved for warriors who’ve died in battle. These warlike myths were appropriated by Wagner, and later by the Nazis.
Kiefer was inspired by Wagner as a teenager – he can still recall the first time he heard him, on the radio, when he was fourteen – but he recognises that this great composer was a violent anti-Semite.
Similar ambiguities are reflected in this magnificent, disturbing show. Kiefer’s Walhalla is a monument to hubris. Walking through these galleries feels like wandering around the ruins of Dresden.

Sorry, Dirk. I intended to sit back on this one, but I couldn’t stop myself. I fell in love with Kiefer’s work back in 1988 when there was a huge exhibition of his work at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. I went by myself and was so overwhelmed it reduced me to tears. He is an amazing artist.

So his style was immediately recognizable to me. I’ll hold off next time.

No problem Ruth!
He's indeed an amazing artist and I posted him before (in the Pic of the day with theme symbolism https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...)
Sadly I have yet to catch him in the real, missed an exhibition in Paris a couple of years ago...
And thanks for holding off next time, I seem to recall you already did that once or twice...
And I think everybody knows by now that you're one of our top art connoisseurs ;-)