Anselm Kiefer Biography

But I believe above all that I wanted to build the palace of my memory, because my memory is my only homeland.
Anselm Kiefer

1945 - Born on 8 March in Donaueschingen (Baden-Württemberg)

1951 - Moved to Ottersdorf; attended grammar school in Rastatt

1965 - School-leaving examination; started studying law and Romance languages at the Albert Ludwigs University, Freiburg in Breisgau; spent time in Paris

1966 - 70 - Studied art with Peter Dreher and Horst Antes at the Staatliche Hochschule der Bildenden Künste, Freiburg and Karlsruhe

1969 - Series of photographs of his controversial political action Besetzungen (Occupations); first one-man exhibition at the Galerie am Kaiserplatz, Karlsruhe

1970 - 1972 - Continued his art studies with Joseph Beuys at the Düsseldorf Kunstakademie

from 1971 - Lived in Hornbach (near Heidelberg in the Odenwald); travelled extensively in Europe, the USA and the Middle East

1973 - Notung (Nothung), Galerie Michael Werner, Cologne

1978 - First one-man show in Switzerland at the Kunsthalle Bern

1980 - Verbrennen, verholzen, versenken, versanden for the German pavilion at the Venice Biennale provoked considerable controversy

1984 - Highly successful one-man show at the Städtische Kunsthalle, Düsseldorf (subsequently transferred to the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris and the Israel Museum, Jerusalem); first trip to Israel

1987 - 1989 - International success with a travelling exhibition in the U.S.A.

1970 - 1972 - Continued his art studies with Joseph Beuys at the Düsseldorf Kunstakademie

1988 - Acquired a former brickworks in Höpfingen (near Heidelberg in the Odenwald); planned to install his major project Zweistromland there

1991 - One-man show at the Nationalgalerie in Berlin; presentation of his Books, 1969-1990, in the Kunsthalle Tübingen, the Kunstverein München and the Kunsthaus Zürich

1991 - 1993 - Left Germany; travelled to India, Mexico and China; brief stay in the U.S.A.

since 1992/93 - Settled in Barjac (Cévennes), France; started to transform his 35-hectare studio compound La Ribaute into a Gesamtkunstwerk which can literally be entered

1997 - Himmel-Erde (Heaven-Earth), Museo Correr, Venice

1999 - Works on Paper in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

2000 - Chevirat Ha-Kelim (Breaking of the Vessels), an installation of his works created specially for the Chapelle de La Salpêtrière, Paris