Anselm Kiefer

Heroische Sinnbilder [Heroic Symbols]

About this artwork

In the late 1960s, Anselm Kiefer was one of a number of young German artists exploring the possibilities of coming to terms with their country’s Nazi past by confronting the taboo placed on the visual icons of the Third Reich in the post-war Federal Republic. This is one of a number of photographs of a performance Kiefer did in his Karlsruhe studio in 1969, during which he gave the Hitler salute while standing in a water-filled bathtub wearing military attire. Mocking the delusional grandeur of the Nazis and their conflation of political propaganda with religious imagery, the pictures humorously overlay references to the Third Reich with allusions to the biblical story of Christ’s miraculous walk across the Sea of Galilee. The caption Kiefer added to the images reads: ‘attempt to walk on water in my bathtub in the studio’.

Updated before 2020

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  • artist:
    Anselm Kiefer (born 1945) German
  • title:
    Heroische Sinnbilder [Heroic Symbols]
  • date created:
    1969
  • materials:
    Photograph, black and white, on paper
  • measurements:
    51.30 x 75.70 cm
  • object type:
  • credit line:
    ARTIST ROOMS National Galleries of Scotland and Tate. Acquired jointly through The d’Offay Donation with assistance from the National Heritage Memorial Fund and Art Fund, 2011
  • accession number:
    AR01174
  • gallery:
  • subject:
This artwork is part of Artist Rooms
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Anselm Kiefer

Anselm Kiefer