Art really is something very difficult. It is difficult to make, and it is sometimes difficult for the viewer to understand. It is difficult to work out what is art and what is not art. Anselm Kiefer More Quotes by Anselm Kiefer More Quotes From Anselm Kiefer I am interested in reconstructing symbols. It's about connecting with an older knowledge and trying to discover continuities in why we search for heaven. Anselm Kiefer symbols trying heaven What does the artist do? He draws connections. He ties the invisible threads between things. He dives into history, be it the history of mankind, the geological history of the Earth or the beginning and end of the manifest cosmos. Anselm Kiefer beginnings-and-ends ties artist Ruins, for me, are the beginning. With the debris, you can construct new ideas. They are symbols of a beginning. Anselm Kiefer debris ruins ideas Art is longing. You never arrive, but you keep going in the hope that you will. Anselm Kiefer longing art-is art As an artist you have to find something that deeply interests you. It's not enough to make art that is about art, to look at Matisse and Picasso and say, how can I paint like them? You have to be obsessed by something that can't come out in any other way, then the other things - the skill and technique - will follow. Anselm Kiefer technique skills art As a child I had no toys; our house was bombed, but there were lots of bricks. Ruins are wonderful because they are the beginning of something new, you can do something with them. Anselm Kiefer ruins house children History is formed by the people, those who have power and those without power. Each one of us makes history. Anselm Kiefer people History speaks to artists. It changes the artist's thinking and is constantly reshaping it into different and unexpected images. Anselm Kiefer different artist thinking I believe art has to take responsibility but it should not give up being art. Anselm Kiefer giving-up believe art When, at the end of the 1960s, I became interested in the Nazi era, it was a taboo subject in Germany. No one spoke about it anymore, no more in my house than anywhere else. Anselm Kiefer germany eras house Life is an illusion. I am held together in the nothingness by art. Anselm Kiefer life-is together art I believe in empty spaces; they're the most wonderful thing. Anselm Kiefer space wonderful believe The book, the idea of a book or the image of a book, is a symbol of learning, of transmitting knowledge.. I make my own books to find my way through the old stories. Anselm Kiefer stories book ideas When knowledge becomes rigid, it stops living. Anselm Kiefer If I do something that depresses, it's not because I'm depressed, but because political life and history is depressing. Anselm Kiefer depressing political ifs I never see a forest that does not bear a mark or a sign of history. Anselm Kiefer bears doe forests I was interested in transcendence from a very early age. I was interested in what was over there, what was behind life. So when I had my first communion I was very disappointed. I had expected something amazing and surprising and spiritual. Instead all I got was a bicycle. That wasn't what I was after at all. Anselm Kiefer spiritual age firsts I might have been born into a very literal sense of chaos, but in fact that state is true of all of us. Anselm Kiefer chaos might facts Art is difficult. Its not entertainment. Anselm Kiefer difficult entertainment art I am of the opinion that there are artists and non-artists. I think that this is the way it always was and always will be. I do not believe that we are in the center of the world. It is possible that there are gods who do not relate to human. As an artist, I believe that it is possible to depict these forces. Anselm Kiefer artist believe thinking
