{"id":11148,"date":"2015-01-08T16:02:13","date_gmt":"2015-01-08T16:02:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newbloodart.com\/blog\/?p=11148"},"modified":"2019-10-20T22:06:22","modified_gmt":"2019-10-20T22:06:22","slug":"first-published-in-moneyweek-22122014-sarah-ryan-of-new-blood-art-looks-at-two-rising-artists-inspired-by-painter-anselm-kiefer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newbloodart.com\/blog\/first-published-in-moneyweek-22122014-sarah-ryan-of-new-blood-art-looks-at-two-rising-artists-inspired-by-painter-anselm-kiefer\/","title":{"rendered":"Following Anselm Kiefer\u2019s retrospective at the Royal Academy.."},"content":{"rendered":"

First published in MoneyWeek – <\/em>22\/12\/2014<\/em><\/a>\u00a0–<\/p>\n

Interested in investing in art but not quite ready to splash out on a household name?\u00a0<\/strong>Sarah Ryan of New Blood Art looks at two rising artists inspired by painter Anselm Kiefer.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Anselm Kiefer\u2019s retrospective has just ended at the Royal Academy of Arts in London. The show spanned four decades of work, including several seminal pieces from his art college days. I love his work.<\/p>\n

His diamond paintings (incorporating precious stones) must be seen in the flesh to be appreciated \u2013 ever so subtly dancing, like slices of night sky, reflecting the full spectrum of light as you pass them by.<\/p>\n

In investment terms, Kiefer\u2019s work hit the big time in the late 1980s. According to Artnet (invaluable for researching trends in art prices) there was a significant jump in the value of his work between 1987 and 1988 \u2013 total annual sales rose from around $60,000 to $1m.<\/p>\n

What was the catalyst? In 1987, Kiefer had solo exhibitions across the US, at four museums: the Art Institute of Chicago, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the\u00a0Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art and New York\u2019s Museum of Modern Art.<\/p>\n

These established global interest in Kiefer\u2019s work and significantly expanded his collector base \u2013 a powerful catalyst for booming prices.<\/p>\n

Kiefer responded to his new-found wealth in part by buying diamonds. He threw most of them into a tunnel of earth in Dover, \u201cto become part of the earth once again\u201d \u2013 he has a fascination with alchemy and the cycles of life.<\/p>\n

The remaining stones were incorporated into those paintings I was so mesmerised by. As explained in the gallery\u2019s literature, in the work The Starry Heavens Above Us, and the Moral Law Within, Kiefer is \u201csimultaneously exchanging the world above, with the world below, in the true spirit of alchemy\u201d.<\/p>\n

Kiefer was recently in conversation with art historian Tim Marlow, reflecting on his motivations for making work, which include poetry, theological texts, and reflections on the nature of time and the weight of history.<\/p>\n

He was born in Germany, just minutes after VE day, and as with most German artists of his generation, existential concerns were omnipresent. He explores epic themes on an epic scale, and his sense of the absurdity of life is apparent.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs [life] quite desperate, no?\u201d he proposes during the interview with Marlow. He also discusses the concept of experiencing time as malleable in nature \u2013 a material in itself, and of the weight of history and the shock of the past serving as an impetus to make work.<\/p>\n

Yet despite these heavyweight preoccupations, there is a lightness\u00a0about the man in person \u2013 a playfulness.\u00a0Indeed, he sees these qualities of play \u2013 flexibility, curiosity and experimentation \u2013 as essential to the nature of artists, in much the same way as these characteristics are found in great scientists and mathematicians.<\/p>\n

To be able to rearrange the way things are \u2013 to experiment and find new meanings, new realities, to be able to create \u2013 requires an inherent sense of curiosity and play.<\/p>\n

Keifer\u2019s work currently sells for around $445,000 on average, with annual sales last year of around $8m. He agrees\u00a0effortlessly when questioned by Marlow\u00a0that the money is \u201cnice\u201d, but emphatically states that in no way does the amount he receives for a piece of work equate to his understanding of its value \u2013 \u201cnot at all\u201d.<\/p>\n

Rather, he finds creative accreditation from respected peers whose opinions he seeks \u2013 and most significantly from the relationship he has with his work.<\/p>\n

Two similar emerging artists<\/strong><\/p>\n

We see similar themes in the work of a younger artist, Idris Khan. Born in Birmingham, educated at the Royal College of Art, and now living in\u00a0London, Khan also explores the malleability of time and memory in his work, and takes inspiration from theological texts and poetry.<\/p>\n

He creates densely layered imagery by overlaying series of images, cumulating the visual experience of time passing into a sense of time collapsing into single visual moments (see below).<\/p>\n

\"Idris_Khan_025-450x338\"
\nThe Houses of Pariament, 2012, by Idris Khan<\/em><\/p>\n

He graduated in 2004 and immediately gained recognition; London gallery owner Victoria Miro now represents him. Looking at his price data, there is a significant jump in his average sale price between 2011 and 2012, when it moves from around $30,000 to $85,000.<\/p>\n

During this time Khan had solo shows\u00a0in the UK, Berlin, Sweden, New York\u00a0and San Francisco \u2013 again that correlation between exposure, demand and prices.<\/p>\n

Of course, it\u2019s not quite as simple a formula as \u201csolo shows = increases in prices\u201d. Obviously, before a significant solo show can be put on in the first place, there has to have been the rising demand to justify it. But there is certainly a striking correlation, which makes a decent argument for investing before, or at, a young artist\u2019s first solo show.<\/p>\n

\"kettle\"Mawddach Estuary \u2013 North Wales, 2014, by Peter Kettle<\/em><\/p>\n

Petter Kettle<\/a> is another Kiefer-inspired emerging artist. Kiefer\u2019s use of mixed media and unique materiality encouraged Kettle to broaden his own use of media from working exclusively in oils to incorporating the use of plaster in his paintings (see above). These have the surfaces of well-worn exterior walls: buffeted and corroded over time.<\/p>\n

The alchemy of light and landscape through mixed media is a quality that shines through his work. By intentionally mixing media he allows a space for fortuitous accidents to occur throughout the process of painting.<\/p>\n

Kettle says of Kiefer: \u201cHis vast and expansive landscapes draw the eye searching to\u00a0the furthest horizon. When seen up\u00a0close, new compositions unfold, taking the viewer on multiple journeys.\u00a0This is a perspective I strive to capture in my own work. I don\u2019t ask as bold questions as Kiefer, but celebrate the importance of mark-making, media and surface \u2013 holding Kiefer\u2019s work in the highest regard\u201d.<\/p>\n

Kettle is at the start of his career\u00a0and is just beginning to make waves.\u00a0He was voted in as a Fellow of the\u00a0Royal Society of Arts earlier in the year and held his first, small solo show in\u00a0Bath last year; his paintings start at\u00a0\u00a3450.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

First published in MoneyWeek – 22\/12\/2014\u00a0– Interested in investing in art but not quite ready to splash out on a household name?\u00a0Sarah Ryan of New Blood Art looks at two rising artists inspired by painter Anselm Kiefer. Anselm Kiefer\u2019s retrospective has just ended at the Royal Academy of Arts in London. The show spanned four […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":11150,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[453],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-investable-artists"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newbloodart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newbloodart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newbloodart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newbloodart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newbloodart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11148"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/newbloodart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11148\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12167,"href":"https:\/\/newbloodart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11148\/revisions\/12167"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newbloodart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newbloodart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newbloodart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newbloodart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}