Anselm Kiefer - Recognition

Recognition

In 1990, Kiefer was awarded the Wolf Prize. In 1999 the Japan Art Association awarded him the Praemium Imperiale for his lifetime achievements. In the explanatory statement it reads:

"A complex critical engagement with history runs through Anselm Kiefer's work. His paintings as well as the sculptures of Georg Baselitz created an uproar at the 1980 Venice Biennale: the viewers had to decide whether the apparent Nazi motifs were meant ironically or whether the works were meant to convey actual fascist ideas. Kiefer worked with the conviction that art could heal a traumatized nation and a vexed, divided world. He created epic paintings on giant canvases that called up the history of German culture with the help of depictions of figures such as Richard Wagner or Goethe, thus continuing the historical tradition of painting as a medium of addressing the world. Only a few contemporary artists have such a pronounced sense of art's duty to engage the past and the ethical questions of the present, and are in the position to express the possibility of the absolution of guilt through human effort."

In 2008, Anselm Kiefer was awarded the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, which was then given for the first time to a visual artist. Art historian Werner Spies said in his speech, that Kiefer is a passionate reader who takes impulses from literature for his work. In 2011 Kiefer was appointed to the chair of creativity in art at the Collège de France.

• 1983 Hans-Thoma-Preis (Baden-Württemberg)
• 1990 Wolf Prize for Art
• 1990 Goslarer Kaiserring
• 1997 International Prize by the Jury of the 47th Venice Biennale
• 1999 Praemium Imperiale (Japan)
• 2005 Merit Cross 1st Class of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (Verdienstkreuz 1. Klasse)
• 2005 Austrian Decoration for Science and Art
• 2008 Peace Prize of the German Book Trade
• 2011 Berliner Bär (B.Z.-Kulturpreis):
• 2011 Leo-Baeck-Medal, Leo Baeck Institut of New York