The work of Anselm Kiefer, who was born in Germany in 1945 is all about German history and mythology. Kiefer studied law history, and linguistic before he embarked on his career as an artist at the Academy of the Arts. He later moved on to Dusseldorf where he exchanged views with Joseph Beuys and other artists. It is the destiny of post-war Germany that Kiefer explored from the very beginnings. He presented his works in the German pavilion in 1980. Kiefer's approach draws on many respects to art and history. Historical subject matter, the conception of cycles and a generous manner of painting that is intended to be viewed from a distance. Kiefer's scorched earth paintings preserve the memory of pain and destruction. The artist thematises the atrocities of the twentieth century, commemorating and conveying them as timeless recollections in his impressive paintings. 

The world Kiefer tells us about is both wounded and vulnerable. The immediate general response of post-war art to what had happened in the second world war was o refuse to make a statement and to retreat into abstraction. Into the non-objectivity of art, Anselm Kiefer returned the allegorical image to the world in monumental dimensions.