Gagosian Gallery, Los Angeles
Acquired by the present owner from the above

This work is in very good condition overall. All surface inconsistencies, paint craquelure, scattered accretions, and evident paint loss appear intended by the artist and inherent to the artist’s working method. Unframed.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Anselm Kiefer has frequently employed a bewildering panoply of materials in his paintings, works which are equally as varied in their thematic direction and subject matter as they are in their composition and creation. His eye and mind are constantly exploring and the variety of his subject matter is matched only by the seemingly limitless number of materials he manipulates to create his impressive pieces. His use of multiple media in a single painting blurs the line between painting and sculpture, while questioning our own ability to negotiate the physical realm in a coherent fashion and to unify a sense of time within space. This work, Untitled, of 2007 is an intimate and touching example of Kiefer's ability to ⛄comment on both historical and religious events in an original and insightful fashion. 

The ability of religion to bridge the ethereal and cosmic with our own empirical understanding of our surroundings has given rise to an incredible array of cosmologies and belief systems. Anselm Kiefer, in the model of a classical historical painter, utilizes these belief systems to inform his work, but does so in a particularly contemporaneous fashion. Untitled consists of a palm leaf, painted white, that rests upon what can best be described as a desert landscape. The taupe, ochre, and black background made of earth and plaster upon which the palm frond rests is as streaked and cracked as a parched riverbed. The palm is imbued with great religious significance and has been acknowledged even by pagan philosophies as having an inherent strength and ability to defy death as an organism that thrives where others perish.  Signifying Christ's return to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, the frond assumes an even greater significance as symbolizing the triumph of Christ and his people over the Roman occupiers. Seen through the lens of Kiefer's own history, and that of Germany in the 20^th century, what emerges is an artist grappling with the concept of life, 🅺death, and ultimately redemption and resurrection.

The fascinating nature of the work is its ability to immediately and viscerally evoke these ideas through the use and treatment of the various materials upon the canvas. By utilizing assemblage, Kiefer lends a spatial and temporal layer upon an otherwise static medium.  The white frond is not simply painted on the canvas, but rather is painted and on the canvas. We can see just how this branch grows from the parched desert floor bel🎀ow and understand it derives its power not solely from the artist's hand but ꦑfrom the world from which it physically came. Kiefer shows us what is already there, both in the history and in the physical realm, but further enlightens our understanding by manipulating these objects to postulate a contemporary observation on an eternal quandary.