SHU MacBeth

2010-03-03T07:45:00.000-08:00

"One of Kiefer's most powerful series of paintings was based upon Paul Celan's 1945 poem 'Death Fuge,' which was written in a Nazi concentration camp. The poem contrasted the Aryan blonde hair of Margarete and the dark 'ashen hair' of the Jewess Shulamite. In Your Golden Hair, Margarete (1981) a limp arc of bundled yellow straw is attached to a painting of one of Kiefer's devastated fields, as the Nazi blonde ideal was made grotesque. For Shulamite (1983) he painted a cavernous room based upon a Nazi memorial hall. The room appeared to be blackened with soot as a candelabrum burns in the back. This hellish, over-like environment was evocative of the Holocaust that consumed Shulamite. Fire, both as a destructive and redemptive force, was a common theme in Kiefer's art.
Kiefer was deeply interested in alchemy—the medieval folly of attempting to change such base materials as lead into precious gold. For Kiefer, the artist was an alchemist, converting raw materials such as paint and canvas into objects of great profundity. The aspirations and limits of art were symbolized by the motif of the winged palette that seems to be woefully earth bound."

2010-02-25T12:20:00.000-08:00

Seraphim 1983-84
Seraphim are angels sent to purify the world through fire and burnt offering. Fallen angels are represented in the snake at the bottom of the ladder. This canvas was created by oil paint, straw and shellac, and Kiefer set it on fire (see the black areas), as a burnt offering to God in atonement and seeking God's forgiveness to mankind for a world scorched with evil.

2010-02-25T10:36:00.000-08:00

Good & Evil have no gender
Early Medieval Garments = rectangular shapes
Pale Palette = all begin pure and darkness(reds into browns) grows as evil grows
Angular shapes (garment patterns)
Perpendicular intersections
No Hats
No Armour
Longest garments are ankle length
No dresses have trains
Uniform hair treatment- men & women
Moral clarity of character = simplicity of costume line
Witches= scenic palette
As costumes get darker complexions get paler
Darkening of costumes achieved by addition of layers (somewhat interchangeable between characters)
As layers are added.... each layer is a deeper value and layers are progressively more damaged and shredded

Uniform Make Up Palette across genders, progression of human qualities into pale lifeless qualities as morality is drained from the play so the visual blood increases and the skin tones become paler and paler.