Anselm Kiefer – Jericho

PUBLISHED IN: Artwork Brochures

When Anselm Kiefer traveled to India in the early 1990s, he observed towers of brick that reached toward the sky. Essential to the manufacturing of mudbrick, the same bricks being fired within the towers were used to build them up. In a process of creation and destruction, the towering structures were then gradually dismantled as bricks were needed for construction elsewhere. Fascinated by the metaphorical resonance of this cycle of birth and decay, Kiefer’s work adopted the imagery of grand architectural constructions, monuments to ambition and its collapse. It recalls early civilizations in ancient Mesopotamia and reflects Kiefer’s own history growing up in Germany in the aftermath of World War II.

This specific tower imagery is drawn from Kiefer’s The Seven Heavenly Palaces, a large-scale installation first conceived at his sprawling studio at Barjac in the South of France. These looming concrete towers, over 70 feet tall, signify a spiritual and physical journey upward, a pursuit of ascension that is ambiguous and unsteady. Kiefer’s Seven Heavenly Palaces were installed in Milan in 2004, where they have become a permanent fixture, and towers were also exhibited in 2007 in the courtyard of London’s Royal Academy and at the Grand Palais in Paris. 

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Current Exhibitions

Paintings of Dorothy Hood
March 18 - May 31, 2024
Palm Desert, CA
Sir Winston Churchill: Making Art, Making History
February 20 - May 31, 2024
Virtual
Ansel Adams: Affirmation of Life
December 1, 2023 - June 30, 2024
Palm Desert, CA
Picasso: Beyond the Canvas
October 4, 2023 - April 30, 2024
Palm Desert, CA
No Other Land: A Century of American Landscapes
September 21, 2023 - March 31, 2024
Palm Desert, CA
Art of the American West: A Prominent Collection
August 24, 2023 - May 31, 2024
Palm Desert, CA
Alexander Calder: Shaping a Primary Universe
August 23, 2023 - May 31, 2024
Palm Desert, CA
Andy Warhol: All is Pretty
August 17, 2023 - May 31, 2024
Jackson Hole, WY
Georgia O’Keeffe and Ansel Adams: Modern Art, Modern Friendship
July 13, 2023 - April 30, 2024
Palm Desert, CA
Florals for Spring, Groundbreaking
May 8, 2023 - May 31, 2024
Palm Desert, CA
First Circle: Circles in Art
February 14, 2023 - May 31, 2024
Palm Desert, CA
Your Heart’s Blood: Intersections of Art and Literature
September 12, 2022 - March 31, 2024
Palm Desert, CA
Meeting Life: N.C. Wyeth and the MetLife Murals
July 18, 2022 - March 31, 2024
Palm Desert, CA
Andy Warhol Polaroids: Wicked Wonders
December 13, 2021 - March 31, 2024
Palm Desert, CA

Archived Exhibitions

2024

Discovering Creativity: American Art Masters
January 10 - March 17, 2024
Ann Norton Sculpture Gardens - West Palm Beach, FL

2023

Figurative Masters of the Americas
January 4 - February 12, 2023
Palm Desert, CA

2022

Abstract Expressionism: Transcending the Radical
January 12, 2022 - January 31, 2023
Palm Desert, CA
Georgia O’Keeffe and Marsden Hartley: Modern Minds
February 1, 2022 - February 28, 2023
Palm Desert, CA
My Own Skin: Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera
June 16 - December 31, 2022
Palm Desert, CA
N.C. Wyeth: A Decade of Painting
September 29, 2022 - March 31, 2023
Palm Desert, CA

2021

It Was Acceptable in the 80s
April 27, 2021 - August 31, 2023
Palm Desert, CA
Elaine and Willem de Kooning: Painting in the Light
August 3, 2021 - January 31, 2022
Palm Desert, CA
James Rosenquist: Potent Pop
June 7, 2021 - January 31, 2023
Palm Desert, CA

2019

Paul Jenkins: Coloring the Phenomenal
December 27, 2019 - March 31, 2023
Palm Desert, CA

2018

N.C. Wyeth: Paintings and Illustrations
February 1 - May 31, 2018
Palm Desert, CA
The Paintings of Sir Winston Churchill
March 21 - May 30, 2018
Palm Desert, CA
The Paintings of Sir Winston Churchill
June 1 - July 27, 2018
San Francisco, CA
The Paintings of Sir Winston Churchill
August 1 - September 16, 2018
Jackson Hole, WY
de Kooning x de Kooning
November 8, 2018 - February 28, 2019
New York, NY