Art Movie: Anselm

Anselm, a portrait of the German artist Anselm Kiefer is profound, moving, disturbing, and an overall look at the artist’s career without delving too deeply into the work or the man himself. Wim Wenders released this in 2023 and it’s been pretty popular with audiences ever since.

“Childhood is an empty space, like the beginning of the world.”

The movie starts out languidly, with scenes from Kiefer’s installation/studio/home. Accompanying the images are music and voices that are disconcerting and irritating at times. The whispered speech that pops up occasionally during the film is especially intrusive, as the quiet voice is almost illegible and scratches across the ear like fingernails on a chalkboard.

One thing the documentary displays is the variety of scale but also the sheer amount of work Kiefer has created over the years. While a few pieces might work in one’s home, most of the artwork is grandiose, epic install, and needs a museum (or a factory) to really get a chance to let it breathe.

I’ve long been a fan of Kiefer’s, ever since seeing his retrospective at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1988. His work is dark, turbulent, scary, yet holds an undercurrent of optimism that allows one to not get overwhelmed.

At a time when Germany seemed unwilling to reflect on its behavior during the Second World War, Kiefer held up a mirror, forcing not only his homeland, but the world, to think about the atrocities that we’re perpetrated during the conflict.

It’s aa good reminder to us that maybe we shouldn’t be too hasty in eradicating the reminders of our own guilty pasts, when the culture allowed for barbaric practices and civil war sometimes had brothers fighting. The monuments of the losing side could be an opportunity to discuss that history, but if they are all torn down, what will the impetus be?

If you’re a fan of Kiefer, this documentary allows for an overall view of his artistic life, without going too deeply into the underpinnings of it. If you’re not, it’s a decent introduction, though it’s a very surface treatment of the artist.