The exhibition Anselm Kiefer: Heaven and Earth, which opened at Montreal's Musée d'art contemporain on Feb. 11, is one of the art-world events of the year in Canada. A major international figure, Kiefer emerged in the eighties, as the ultimate exemplar of postwar German angst. His monumental canvases dared to quote from the fascist architecture of Albert Speer, and the German myths and legends so beloved of the Reich, picturing battle-scarred and smoldering landscapes haunted by the ghosts of a Teutonic past. In his paintings, as well as his sculptural installations and books, Kiefer worried at wounds that were still barely beginning to heal, opening them up afresh for deeper and often painful examination. He has had his detractors; Kiefer has been accused of reglamorizing the very sorts of hyped-up Aryanism that had lead to Auschwitz in the first place, reiterating themes of European history and myth on a heroic scale, and a visual language that is both physically and emotionally overbearing. These critics deftly ignored the fact that the paintings are equally engaged with Old Testament stories and the Kabbalah, but such reactions are predictable enough. If you set out to work with the downed electrical wires of recent history, you can expect a few jolts. "I cannot imagine German culture without Judaism," Kiefer said, explaining his position. "Everything that makes German philosophy and poetry interesting to the world is a combination of Germany and Judaism." Kiefer has persevered in his project of retrieval and reconsideration, working for the past 15 years at his secluded property in France to produce a body of work that is a magisterial meditation on the cycles of human history, and humankind's insatiable hunger for heaven, which Kiefer understands as a metaphor for perfection, utopia, or the empyrean of absolute truths. The use of lead in so many of Kiefer's works also harkens back to alchemy. Kiefer often explores such inversions. In his works, you transcend by plunging downward into earth; moving upward into spirit grounds you. Past, present and future are presented as simultaneous. For all its gravity, this is an art of new beginnings. One of the surprises of this exhibition is that the spaces feel so calm and contemplative. Loaded with hope and sorrow, it is capacious enough to carry us forward.

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