Closer Look: Hope Springs Eternal
January 2008
Two heavyweights duked it out this summer. It’s been years since a match was as exciting or as long-awaited. This may sound like boxing, but David Hockney and Anselm Kiefer are reigning champions of contemporary art. Their pictures stood toe to toe on adjacent walls at the 239th Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. At one end of the skylit room, Hockney installed "Bigger Trees Near Warter" (2007), a painting composed of 50 canvases, each 36 by 48 inches. Opposite, Kiefer, a comparatively new contender, installed his mixed-media "Aperiat Terra et Germinet Salvatorem" (2006). While Hockney’s painting was the largest ever included, Kiefer’s 15-foot by 22½-foot composition of encrusted mud, paint, shellac, a thorn bush and a model submarine made of lead weighed in as the heaviest.Kiefer came to international attention in the ’70s and ’80s for his profoundly tragic, frighteningly panoramic visions of empty railroad tracks, burnt books, charnel ovens and charred terrain—killing fields with the bodies removed. He often works in series, sometimes using a generic title. This is the case with "Aperiat terra et germinet Salvatorem," which is part of the larger "Aperiatur Terra" body of work that has attracted wide attention in the last two years. The title is a quotation from the Latin translation of the Bible, scratched across the grey sky as if in chalk for a lesson: "rorate caeli desuper et nubes pluant justum / aperiat terra et germinet salvatorem" ("Let the clouds above rain down justice on the earth, let the earth open and bring forth a savior"). These are the opening words of Isaiah 45:8, which are read throughout Advent, the season of spiritual reflection in preparation for Christmas. The "Rorate Coeli" reflects Isaiah’s longing for renewal and rebirth after the devastations of his days. The atmosphere settles heavily over a submarine lying derelict on the bottom of an ocean. Pink and red flowers spring up from the dry, cracked seabed, unexpectedly restored to the light. The work is neither a dream nor a narration; it is the idea that spring follows winter, life redeems death.
When critics praise Kiefer for making works like operas, they mean he tackles the big themes while accepting the risk of falling flat on his face. The most blatant unrealities are presented as real and true. The scale has to be big enough to steam-roll the nitpickers. Hockney’s style is more like Stravinsky than Wagner. There are as many styles as there are artists, which explains why the Academy’s contest was judged an honorable draw.
John T. Spike is an international art critic and curator.