Oil paint, shellac, emulsion, paper and nails on canvas
Environment
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
ARTIST ROOMS
National Heritage Memorial Fund
Art Fund
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/anselm-kiefer-1406" aria-label="More by Anselm Kiefer" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Anselm Kiefer</a>
Palette
ARTIST ROOMS
Acquired jointly with the National Galleries of Scotland through The d'Offay Donation with assistance from the National Heritage Memorial Fund and the Art Fund 2008
abstraction
emotions, concepts and ideas
fine arts and music
fire
formal qualities
from recognisable sources
gestural
man-made
natural phenomena
non-representational
objects
palette
texture
<p>Anselm Kiefer’s painting, <span>Palette </span>1981, depicts a traditional artist’s palette suspended between two strands of burning rope. Seven flames are depicted on each strand, spaced at regular intervals along the rope’s length. The palette lies at the very centre of the composition, while the ropes span the width of the canvas. The palette and ropes are painted in black, while each of the fourteen flames are painted in white and overlaid with translucent flashes of red and ochre. The warm tones of the flames contrast with the cool grey, blue and purple tones of the composition’s background. The fluid, gestural brushstrokes of the background imply space but do not refer directly to an identifiable setting.</p>
painting oil paint shellac emulsion paper nails canvas
8 October 2010 – 16 January 2011
2011-01-16
8 October 2010 – 16 January 2011
2011-01-16
2010-10-08
BALTIC (Gateshead, UK)
http://www.balticmill.com
2010-10-08
ARTIST ROOMS 2010: Anselm Kiefer
Loan-out
7 February 2015 – 7 June 2015
2015-06-07
7 February 2015 – 7 June 2015
2015-06-07
2015-02-07
Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery Trust (Carlisle, UK)
2015-02-07
ARTIST ROOMS 2015: Anselm Kiefer
Loan-out
19 October 2018 – 27 January 2019
2019-01-27
19 October 2018 – 27 January 2019
2019-01-27
2018-10-19
Herbert Art Gallery & Museum (Coventry, UK)
http://www.theherbert.org
2018-10-19
ARTIST ROOMS 2018: Anselm Kiefer
Loan-out
Palette
support: 2905 × 4000 × 35 mm
<a href="/search?gid=999999788" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">ARTIST ROOMS</a>
Acquired jointly with the National Galleries of Scotland through The d'Offay Donation with assistance from the <a href="/search?gid=999999967" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">National Heritage Memorial Fund</a> and the <a href="/search?gid=999999968" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">Art Fund</a> 2008
<div class="text">
<p>Anselm Kiefer’s painting, <i>Palette </i>1981, depicts a traditional artist’s palette suspended between two strands of burning rope. Seven flames are depicted on each strand, spaced at regular intervals along the rope’s length. The palette lies at the very centre of the composition, while the ropes span the width of the canvas. The palette and ropes are painted in black, while each of the fourteen flames are painted in white and overlaid with translucent flashes of red and ochre. The warm tones of the flames contrast with the cool grey, blue and purple tones of the composition’s background. The fluid, gestural brushstrokes of the background imply space but do not refer directly to an identifiable setting.</p>
<p>The picture was made in Germany during Kiefer’s residence at the Hornbach studio in the Oden Forest in 1981, a year after the artist’s first major international exhibition at the Venice Biennale. <i>Palette </i>combines oil paint, shellac and emulsion applied in both liquid and stiff impasto to create a complex visual effect. The raw materiality of the canvas is further emphasised by the application of sand. A paper interleaf technique has also been used, which involves temporarily adhering flat or rolled pieces of paper to small sections of the canvas at various intervals during the painting process. Kiefer applied the rolls horizontally and later peeled them back to reveal a layering effect, further enhancing the surface texture. </p>
<p>Kiefer began exploring the motif of the artist’s palette in 1974. The closest visual relation to the work within Kiefer’s oeuvre is <i>Palette on a Rope </i>(<i>Pallete am Seil</i>) 1977 (reproduced in Rosenthal 1987, p.66), which presents a direct compositional comparison and employs the same materials. <i>Kyffhäuser </i>1980–1 (reproduced in Rosenthal 1987, pp.84–8) also shares connections with <i>Palette</i>. The work is a twenty-three double-page book of photographic plates. The final double page features a black and white photograph of a barren landscape over which Kiefer has painted a palette suspended by burning ropes.</p>
<p>Kiefer has said of the palette, a motif that recurs in many of his paintings:</p>
<p class="cttext">
</p><blockquote>The use of the palette represents the idea of the artist connecting heaven and earth. He works here but he looks up there. He is always moving between the two realms. The artists are like the shamans, who when they were meditating would sit in a tree in order to suspend themselves between heaven and earth. The palette can transform reality by suggesting new visions. Or you could say that the visionary experience finds its way to the material world through the palette.<br/>(Auping 2005<i>, </i>p.171.)</blockquote>
<p>However, the suspension of the palette by burning ropes in this painting could be read as signifying the threatened status of this aspiration in post-war German art. That the ropes are alight in seven places may recall the seven flames of the menorah, or seven-branched lampstand, a symbol of Judaism. In <i>Palette </i>Kiefer may thus be referencing the Holocaust and<i> </i>continued difficulties surrounding the creative act in the post-fascist world. </p>
<p>
<b>Further reading</b>
<br/>Mark Rosenthal, <i>Anselm Kiefer, </i>exhibition catalogue, Philadelphia Museum of Art 1987.<br/>Michael Auping, <i>Anselm Kiefer: Heaven and Earth, </i>exhibition catalogue, Museum of Modern Art Fort Worth 2005, reproduced pp.78–9.</p>
<p>Ava Carleton-Williams<br/>October 2011</p>
</div>

Summary
2012-06-22T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
<p>Throughout his career, Kiefer has explored the problematic cultural legacy inherited by artists in post-war Germany. In this composition, the artist symbolises his situation through the depiction of a painter’s palette, hanging tentatively from a burning thread. Painted thinly against an ambiguous blue-grey background, Kiefer’s image evokes the anguish left by the destructive legacy of Nazism, and the sense of shame and loss experienced by his nation after the Second World War. Pointing to the impossibility of artistic creation in this climate, the painting is related to a larger series of works by Kiefer that juxtapose palettes with images of war-torn Germany.</p>

Online caption
2009-04-16T00:00:00
online-caption
ONLINE_CAPTION
abstraction emotions, concepts and ideas fine arts and music fire formal qualities from recognisable sources gestural man-made natural phenomena non-representational objects palette texture