KIEFER, ANSELM
1945 Donaueschingen

Title: Johannis Logen, Meister vom Stuhl (From: Freemason Series).
Date: 2008.
Technique: Mixed media, collaged on Photographic paper.
Measurement: 122 x 120 cm.
Frame: Framed. Not examined out of the frame.



Provenance:
- - Soura Kunst, Bad Honnef

- Corporate Collection Germany (acquired from previous owner in 2010)



- Anselm Kiefer’s work has been celebrated in major retrospectives at venues including the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Royal Academy of Arts in London and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam

- From the highly sought-after series in which Kiefer explores the symbols of the legendary Freemasons

- A detailed paper work, meticulously treated across its entire surface, with a profound, captivating effect



The Murmur of Time

Anselm Kiefer grew up during the final days of the Second World War—an experience that appears almost fateful in the way it permeates his entire oeuvre with historical gravity and existential depth.

Beginning in 1966, while still studying law and Romance languages in Freiburg, Kiefer turned increasingly toward art, influenced by impressions gathered during a trip to Paris, where he encountered haute couture and the architecture of Le Corbusier. He studied under Peter Dreher in Freiburg and, from 1969 onward, under Horst Antes in Karlsruhe.

Kiefer achieved international recognition in 1980 through his participation in the 39th Venice Biennale alongside Georg Baselitz and through an exhibition at Marian Goodman Gallery in New York in 1981. Since 1993, he has lived and worked in France.

His oeuvre encompasses painting, photography, sculpture, and artist’s books, distinguished by monumental scale and the use of unconventional materials such as straw, sand, and dried plants. Kiefer’s works are shaped by a multilayered symbolism nourished by mythology and history. Major retrospectives at the Royal Academy of Arts in 2014 and the Centre Pompidou in 2015–16 further affirmed his artistic significance. More recently, the comprehensive retrospective at the Van Gogh Museum and the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam in 2025, along with Anselm by Wim Wenders, have once again underscored his outstanding position in contemporary art.



„Freimaurer, Johannis Logen, Meister vom Stuhl" – Experience Between Myth and Individual Perception

The work Freimaurer, Johannis Logen, Meister vom Stuhl (Freemasons, Johannis Lodges, Worshipful Master) was created at a pivotal moment in Kiefer’s career: in 2008, he was awarded the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade.

During this period, Kiefer engaged intensively with Freemasonry, an ethical fraternity with members worldwide since the eighteenth century and itself long associated with myth and symbolism—motifs that Kiefer also invokes in the present work.

At the center of the composition lies a square framing one of the most recognizable Masonic emblems: the intersecting square and compass. Around this focal point unfolds a network of lines, circular arcs, and inscriptions that keep the viewer’s gaze in constant motion. Collaged photographs of staircases converge from various directions toward a single point at the center. Within Masonic iconography, such stairways symbolize spiritual ascent and the connection between heaven and earth in the sense of Jacob’s Ladder.

Across the entire pictorial surface, inscriptions are scattered throughout. Terms such as “Johannis Logen,” “Royal York,” and “Großloge zur Sonne” may be recognized by informed viewers as major Masonic lodges in Germany. Writing functions as an important expressive device in Kiefer’s work: through such keywords, he evokes associations drawn from historical, cultural, or personal knowledge, allowing symbols and text to combine into highly individual interpretations.



Between History, Myth, and Memory

Freimaurer, Johannis Logen, Meister vom Stuhl fuses elements of painting, photography, and text into a complex visual structure. It resists singular interpretation. With every encounter, new associations emerge, new connections between history, myth, and individual memory unfold, compelling the viewer into an active process of decipherment.

Sophie Ballermann



Estimated shipping costs for this lot:
The lot is unsuitable for parcel shipping. Transport only by shipping company after consultation following the auction.

additional shipping insurance


Shipping insurance

up to total invoice amount of 25,000 Euros: max. 41.65 Euro

over a total invoice amount of 25,000 Euros: 1.8 o/oo


USA by individual arrangement after the auction.




#Anselm Kiefer #Neo-Expressionism #New History Painting #Germany #Contemporary Art #2000s #Post War.



This lot will be sold under standard taxation (Condition of Sale §V5.1)







In accordance with §26 UrhG (German Copyright Act), VAN HAM is obliged to pay a statutory resale royalty on the sale proceeds of all original works of fine art and photography whose authors have not been deceased for 70 years prior to the end of the calendar year of the sale. The buyer shall contribute 1.5% of the hammer price to this fee.