Painter

Anselm Kiefer

Anselm Kiefer is a German painter and sculptor known for monumental works on history and memory, combining paint with straw, lead, and other materials.

Anselm Kiefer quick facts

Anselm Kiefer builds materially dense paintings that combine oil or acrylic with straw, shellac, metal, photographs, and other embedded materials.

Anselm Kiefer quick facts
Full name	Anselm Kiefer
Born	1945 · Donaueschingen, Germany
Died	—
Nationality	German
Movements	Neo-Expressionism (associated)
Paint types	Oil paint · Acrylic paint · Emulsion paint · Watercolor · Gouache
Other media	Sculpture · artist's books · photography
Other materials	Lead · straw · sand · wood
Painting surfaces	Canvas · linen · paper; also burlap (coarse woven jute) in specific paintings
Painting methods	Built dense, weathered surfaces from layered paint, shellac and emulsion, incorporating straw, lead, charcoal, or photographs; also made watercolor-and-gouache studies
Common subjects	German history, memory of war, mythology, poetry, burned fields, architecture, forests, sunflowers, and allegory
Notable works	Sulamith (1983) · Böhmen liegt am Meer (Bohemia Lies by the Sea) (1996) · Die Milchstraße (The Milky Way) (1985–87)

Sources: SFMOMA: Sulamith (1983), The Met: Bohemia Lies by the Sea, Ashmolean: paintings and works on paper, Saint Louis Art Museum: mixed-media works, National Gallery of Art: Zim Zum., The Met: Autumn Forest, watercolor and gouache on paper, and Guggenheim: Anselm Kiefer biography and materials

Paint types used by Anselm Kiefer

Kiefer combines oil, acrylic, and emulsion in layered works; SFMOMA records all three in Sulamith, listing shellac, woodcut, and straw as other materials.

Oil paint

SFMOMA records oil among the materials in Kiefer’s Sulamith, alongside acrylic, emulsion, shellac, woodcut, and straw on linen. The oil is one part of a layered mixed-media surface, not an isolated medium. The Met and North Carolina Museum of Art catalog further works combining oil with emulsion and other materials.
Acrylic paint

SFMOMA lists acrylic in Sulamith and Unternehmen Seelöwe, where it appears with other materials in Kiefer’s layered compositions. The North Carolina Museum of Art also records acrylic alongside oil and emulsion in an untitled work. These records document acrylic as one component within mixed-media paintings.
Emulsion paint

Kiefer’s use of emulsion is documented by SFMOMA in Sulamith and by the Met in Böhmen liegt am Meer. Both records place it alongside other media, including oil. The North Carolina Museum of Art likewise catalogs emulsion with oil and acrylic, confirming it as a recurring paint material in his layered work.

Sources: SFMOMA: Sulamith (1983), SFMOMA: Unternehmen Seelöwe (1983–84).; The Met: Böhmen liegt am Meer, oil and emulsion on burlap; North Carolina Museum of Art: Untitled, oil, acrylic, and emulsion

Painting surfaces used by Anselm Kiefer

Kiefer works on canvas, linen, and paper, adding straw, shellac, metal, or photographs; the examples distinguish supports from other materials.

Canvas

Kiefer’s paintings are documented on canvas as well as coarse fabrics such as linen and burlap. Museum records show his painted surfaces accumulating dense layers of paint and other materials, though the precise construction varies by work. Canvas is one support in a broader practice that also includes works on paper.
Linen

SFMOMA catalogs Sulamith as a mixed-media work on linen, with oil, acrylic, emulsion, shellac, woodcut, and straw. The support is a coarse textile that remains part of the assembled surface. The record distinguishes linen from the burlap identified for other Kiefer paintings and from his works on paper.
Paper

Kiefer made works on paper, including early and later mixed-media pieces documented by the Ashmolean, Saint Louis Art Museum, and National Gallery of Art. These museum-cataloged paper works establish a distinct, portable support within his practice, differing from his large paintings on canvas, linen, and burlap.

Sources: SFMOMA: Sulamith (1983), The Met: Bohemia Lies by the Sea, Ashmolean: paintings and works on paper, Saint Louis Art Museum: mixed-media works, National Gallery of Art: Zim Zum.

Painters similar to Anselm Kiefer

Julian Schnabel builds paintings with attached materials, while Jean-Michel Basquiat offers a New York approach to expressive imagery and history.

Julian Schnabel

Julian Schnabel is an American Neo-Expressionist painter known for monumental works incorporating broken ceramic plates and unusual supports.

Jean-Michel Basquiat

Jean-Michel Basquiat was an American artist whose paintings combine handwritten text, anatomy, crowns, cultural references, music, and history.