SEMIOTICS OF ANSELM KIEFER. ARCHIVING THE FACTS OF HISTORICAL CONSCIOUSNESS IN THE CONTEXT OF THE SYMBOLISM OF THE VISIBLE AND THE INVISIBLE.

Sergey Stepanov

UDC

75.01

SEMIOTICS OF ANSELM KIEFER. ARCHIVING THE FACTS OF HISTORICAL CONSCIOUSNESS IN THE CONTEXT OF THE SYMBOLISM OF THE VISIBLE AND THE INVISIBLE.

Published in Siberian Art History Journal · Pages 7–19 · Rubric: Foreign art history

Received: 13.06.2023 Accepted: 16.06.2023 Published: 16.06.2023

Authors

Sergey Stepanov

Siberian Federal University Russian Federation · Krasnoyarsk

ABSTRACT

The article will consider the problem of correlating the signs and symbols of Anselm Kiefer's semiotic system in connection with the facts of historical consciousness and its narrative. Anselm Kiefer's painting "Nuremberg" (1982) will be taken as an object of study as a representative of the author's creative approach, reflecting a combination of postmodern aesthetics, traditionalism and as a representative of the author's palimpsest, creative thinking. The work of Anselm Kiefer develops in the direction of returning the ideological program of the work to the space of the field of the original symbolic natural meanings. Natural meanings intuitively, at the level of the deep subconscious, reflect the essence of historical and social facts. The natural-philosophical approach to the presentation of historical facts not only and not so much returns the cultural and civilizational spirit to its natural state, but rather affirms the unnaturalness of the “heroic symbols” that can be used by the ideologists of official state institutions. Formalization of phenomena, facts through the prism of "heroic symbolism" can distort their essence. The semiotics of Anselm Kiefer, as the principle of archiving and transmitting historical facts, affirms the cleansing of political associations and a return to the cultural code. The artistic language of Anselm is presented as a universal text, in the space of which many meanings procedurally converge, implicitly containing invisible and visible symbolism. Marking allusions, the artist points to a figure of speech in which a circumstance and a seemingly unrelated context are hidden. Marking the fact with the help of the text that is inscribed on the canvas or directly contained in the name of the work of art, the master points to the visible part of the program of the work of art. Thus, the binary nature of Kiefer's artistic language organizes the connection between text and subtext, the visible part of the program and the invisible one. Anselm's non-standard approach offers new research tools and demonstrates the technology of producing new meanings.

KEYWORDS

Anselm Kiefer, neo-expressionism, expressionism, philosophical and art analysis, «Nuremberg» (1982)

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JATS XML

Doctor of Cultural Studies, Docent

Julia Zamaraeva

rybka08@bk.ru

Candidate of Philosophical Sciences

Anastasia Kistova

Candidate of Cultural Studies, Docent

Maria Kolesnik

masha_kolesnik@mail.ru

Doctor of Philosophy, Professor

Natal'ya P. Kopceva