Midsummer Night

Anselm Kiefer

1980 · Gouache and acrylic on cut and pasted photographs · Modern and Contemporary Art

Midsummer Night (or Johannisnacht), the night before the summer solstice, is celebrated in Germany with both pagan and Christian traditions. In one such tradition, the spores of ferns are collected for use in rituals concerning invulnerability and invisibility. Here, Kiefer painted ferns over two cut and pasted photographs of a palette in the artist’s studio. He explained: "The first trees were ferns. They are primal. Charcoal and oil are made out of ferns that existed at the beginning of life. There are many stories and folktales about plants having memories . . . [and] ferns may contain secret knowledge."

Artist

Anselm Kiefer

Date

1980

Medium

Gouache and acrylic on cut and pasted photographs

Department

Modern and Contemporary Art

Credit line

Purchase, Lila Acheson Wallace Gift, 1995