Gallery Bastian and Anselm Kiefer
Gallery Bastian had not only been internationally known, renowned for their exhibition spaces and firmly established itself firmly on the firmament of art aficionados due to their astute curatorship when it comes to presenting remarkable artworks of both modern and post-war eras, but also been on my radar for the longest time.
Needless to say, when I learned about Bastian Gallery’s ongoing collaborations with Anselm Kiefer culminating in-focused exhibitions, I had to zero in on their efforts.
What sets Bastian Gallery apart from other galleries is the fact that they are not merely focussed on the tested and tried but instead are focused on pushing boundaries and with its access, are in the position to exhibit exclusive and more recent works of well-established artists, with most of Kiefer’s more recent emissions being based on the common denominator that their physical presence is pervaded by a tangible fragility, elevated haptics and lyrical analogies.
Bastian Gallery’s most recent Anselm Kiefer exhibition served as a christening of their newly established gallery pavilion in Berlin, which saw Kiefer center his artworks thematically around poems of Arthur Rimbaud, explorations of metaphysical dimensions along with his trademark references to post-war Germany set against the backdrop of the historical developments in the twentieth century as well as current ones.
Bastian Gallery also has a publishing arm, which accompanies their exhibitions with dedicated catalogues, with Heiner Bastian’s monograph on Anselm Kiefer being not only being one of the more comprehensive ones but allowing a glimpse into Heiner Bastian’s approach to curation and his outlook on art at large, which is substantiated by the profound essays he penned to contextualise and pay homage to Anselm Kiefer’s oeuvre at large.
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image from gallery website
