Iconoclastic Controversy

Anselm Kiefer

1980 · Gouache and ink on photograph · Modern and Contemporary Art

Between 1976 and 1980 Kiefer made works that take as their theme the iconoclastic controversy of the Byzantine Empire. Rooted in the Second Commandment’s prohibition of graven images, the medieval debate involved the persecution of artist-monks and the destruction of icons. Here he restaged the conflict in his studio with miniature versions of World War II tanks (one has destroyed a piece of clay in the shape of an artist’s palette), around which are inscribed the names of important figures from both sides. The image links the iconoclastic battle to the Nazi’s attack on "degenerate ‘art’" in the late 1930s, which led to the destruction of hundreds of works of modern art.

Artist

Anselm Kiefer

Date

1980

Medium

Gouache and ink on photograph

Department

Modern and Contemporary Art

Credit line

Purchase, Lila Acheson Wallace Gift, 1995