Anselm Kiefer: Field of the Cloth of Gold

Gagosian is presenting “Anselm Kiefer: Field of the Cloth of Gold” at its Le Bourget location. On view are four new monumental paintings, completed by the artist over the past two years. The exhibition’s title refers to the 16th-century summit between France and England, but as the artist told us recently, the allusion should not be read into too much. In Ein Wort von Sensen gesprochen (One Word Spoken by Scythes, 2019–20), an endless field of golden wheat glows against a setting sun, the horizon punctuated by a dozen scythes, their blades the color of rust. Kiefer, whose sweeping paintings of desolate landscapes incorporate materials like wheat, gold leaf, ash, and lead, describes his process as one of constant beginning and destruction, acknowledging the connection between nothingness and existence.