Panel

Born in Germany in 1945 and currently living in France, Anselm Kiefer is a major European painter whose remarkable body of work explores the deep, mythological currents that guide Western history. The panelists will discuss Kiefers work by focusing on Velimir Chlebnikov, a major body of work featuring a series of thirty paintings housed in a steel pavilion designed by the artist.

The paintings and their pavilion are Kiefer’s tribute to the visionary Russian thinker Velimir Chlebnikov (1885-1922), who lived a brief and tumultuous life as a leading figure in the Russian avant-garde through the period of World War I and the Russian revolution. Kiefer was influenced by Chlebnikov’s writings, particularly his esoteric theories about the forces that cause human conflict.

Moderator 
Harry Philbrick, exhibition curator and Director, The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT

Participants
Andreas Huyssen, Villard Professor of German and Comparative Literature, Columbia University
Mark Rosenthal, independent curator

Presented in collaboration with The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, on occasion of the museum’s exhibition Anselm Kiefer: Velimir Chlebnikov and the Sea