Anselm Kiefer

Anselm Kiefer was born in Donaueschingen, Germany in 1945. He studied at the art academies of Freiburg, Karlsruhe, and Dusseldorf and trained under the renowned artists Joseph Beuys and Peter Dreher. While he began his career in photography and performance pieces, he is renowned for his large-scale paintings, which incorporate a variety of organic and inorganic materials, including raw earth, straw, resin, and lead. Throughout his career, Kiefer has often treated the subjects of German history, World War II, Kabbalah spirituality, and the cosmos. He is associated with the New Symbolism and Neo-Expressionist movements. He has been the recipient of several notable prizes and honours, including the Wolf Prize in 1990 and the prestigious Praemium Imperiale in 1999.