Evil flowers
(Böse Blumen)
(1985-1991)
- Medium
- oil, gesso, emulsion, soil, foxglove (Digitalis purpurea), on canvas
- Measurements
- 170.0 × 230.0 cm
- Inscription
- inscribed (inverted) (diagonally) in black chalk on reverse c.r.: böse Blúmen / 85/91
- Accession Number
- IC3-1992
- Department
- Contemporary Art
- Credit Line
- National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Felton Bequest, 1992
© Anselm Kiefer
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of Digitisation Champion Ms Carol Grigor through Metal Manufactures Limited - Gallery location
- Level 3, NGV International
- About this work
-
In the early 1980s painting was once again centrestage of the art world, and German artist Anselm Kiefer was perhaps the most prominent of the ‘new’ painters. He developed an array of visual symbols commenting on the tragic aspects of German history, particularly the Nazi period. Evil flowers displays all the elements of his mature style, acquiring a physical presence through the use of collage layers and scratched textures borrowed from the Surrealist tradition. The brushy, gestural painting beneath the dried foxgloves consciously recalls early Expressionism, but the frontal format and assembled nature of Keifer’s landscapes also evoke the grattage landscapes of his compatriot, Max Ernst.
- Subjects (general)
- Botanical
- Subjects (specific)
- dried flowers leaf (plant material) leaves (plant components) seed (material) seeds (plant components) stalk (plant material)
- Movements
- Neo-Expressionism
