Resurrexit

Anselm Kiefer painted the picture, Resurrexit in the year 1973. “It depicts an abandoned forest road, in which the trees are covered with blood, the only living resident is the primeval snake (bottom center), and put together above the forbidding woods, centered at the fading point of the road, there is a wooden staircase” (siue.edu). Kiefer’s studio was once a schoolhouse. Once he got it, he renovated it and turned it into his studio. The only entrance into that studio was the stairs that led up to the door. The wooden stairs in this painting is supposed to be those stairs. (artcyclopedia.com) The word "Resurrexit" is written on the steps of the staircase. “Above the word Resurrexit, at the top of the stairs, the door is tightly shut. According to Gerhard Richter, "Kiefer's work is concerned with the Sisyphean task of working through history and its imbrications in the mythical: to attempt to come to terms with their ghostliness, but also to employ them as the vexed prime material out of which a thought may flow into artistic form"(siue.edu).

In this piece of artwork, I don’t think that Kiefer was referring this to a social issue. I think that he was using little pieces of his own life and placing them in the picture. The stair case is the staircase leading to his studio, and the snake is representing himself. He made huge paintings, using symbolic images to deal with 20th century German history. “These developed an array of visual symbols commenting on tragic aspects of German history and culture, particularly Nazi period. In the 1970’s, Anselm painted series of landscapes that captured the German countryside” (ibiblio.org).

This painting is very unique and makes one think. When I first saw it, I thought that the staircase was a symbol of the staircase to heaven. If you follow that path or that road, when you get to the end, you will reach the place that everyone wants to end up. The road with the leafless trees kind of reminds me of most of the roads around my house after the leaves have fallen off. It is very peaceful and pretty. But with the blood on the trees, it seems like it is not peaceful at all and it makes you want to get to the end of the road much sooner. But this piece of artwork does not remind me of any other piece.

artcyclopedia.com. Far From Heaven: Anselm Kiefer at the Hirshorn. 23 Nov. 2009
<http://www.artcyclopedia.com/feature-2006-09.html>.
ibiblio.org. 14 Jul 2002. Kiefer, Anselm. 23 Nov.2009
<http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/kiefer/>.
siue.edu. 23 Nov. 2009
<http://www.siue.edu/~ejoy/KiernanBarcilonText.htm>.