Anselm Kiefer has established himself as one of the most important post-war German artists. In his works—paintings, sculptures, and installations—Kiefer draws from German culture, making more or less explicit references to recent history, literature, philosophy and art. Kiefer’s Die Ungeborenen combines figurative motives with an abstract background. The artist uses narrative elements—the dresses, numbers, and branches—to evocate the demon Lilith, a figure from Jewish folklore, who was believed to kidnap newborn children. The dresses without bodies, and the adjacent numbers, are also a reminder of the Holocaust. In his work, Kiefer frequently offers a reading of recent history through mythological or classic figures, in this case Lilith. He uses the abstraction of the background not per se, but to demonstrate the universality of his approach; the unborn and the ones who lost their lives are like stars in the infinite sky, countless, yet always on our mind.
","classified_as":[{"id":"http://vocab.getty.edu/aat/300435416","type":"Type","_label":"Description"}]},{"type":"LinguisticObject","content":"unframed: 76 × 122 in. (193 × 309.9 cm)","classified_as":[{"id":"http://vocab.getty.edu/aat/300435430","type":"Type","_label":"Dimensions"}]},{"type":"LinguisticObject","content":"Oil, acrylic, and plaster on lead on canvas","classified_as":[{"id":"http://vocab.getty.edu/aat/300435429","type":"Type","_label":"Medium"}]},{"type":"LinguisticObject","content":"21st century","classified_as":[{"id":"http://vocab.getty.edu/aat/300081446","type":"Type","_label":"Period"}]},{"type":"LinguisticObject","content":"Collection of the artist; Private Collection (per correspondence with James Cohan Gallery, Aug. 30, 2004, in Curatorial Files).","classified_as":[{"id":"http://vocab.getty.edu/aat/300435438","type":"Type","_label":"Provenance"}]},{"type":"LinguisticObject","content":"Highlight","classified_as":[{"id":"http://vocab.getty.edu/aat/300438433","type":"Type","_label":"Status Flag"}]},{"type":"LinguisticObject","content":"Plan your visit to the Yale University Art Gallery","classified_as":[{"id":"http://vocab.getty.edu/aat/300025883","type":"Type","_label":"Visitors' Statement"}]}],"subject_of":[{"type":"LinguisticObject","_label":"View this record on the Yale University Art Gallery website","digitally_carried_by":[{"type":"DigitalObject","_label":"View this record on the Yale University Art Gallery website","classified_as":[{"id":"http://vocab.getty.edu/aat/300264578","type":"Type","_label":"Web Page"}],"identified_by":[{"type":"Name","content":"View this record on the Yale University Art Gallery website"}],"format":"text/html","access_point":[{"id":"https://artgallery.yale.edu/collections/objects/100898","type":"DigitalObject"}]}]},{"type":"LinguisticObject","_label":"IIIF v3 manifest","digitally_carried_by":[{"type":"DigitalObject","_label":"IIIF v3 manifest","identified_by":[{"type":"Name","content":"IIIF v3 manifest"}],"format":"application/ld+json","access_point":[{"id":"https://manifests.collections.yale.edu/yuag/obj/100898","type":"DigitalObject"}],"conforms_to":[{"id":"http://iiif.io/api/presentation/3/context.json","type":"InformationObject"}]}]}],"representation":[{"type":"VisualItem","_label":"Primary Image Thumbnail","digitally_shown_by":[{"type":"DigitalObject","_label":"Primary Image Thumbnail","access_point":[{"id":"https://media.collections.yale.edu/thumbnail/yuag/obj/100898","type":"DigitalObject"}],"classified_as":[{"id":"http://vocab.getty.edu/aat/300215302","type":"Type","_label":"Digital Image"}]}]}],"produced_by":{"type":"Production","part":[{"type":"Production","classified_as":[{"id":"http://vocab.getty.edu/aat/300025103","type":"Type","_label":"Artist"}],"referred_to_by":[{"type":"LinguisticObject","content":"Artist: Anselm Kiefer (German, born 1945)","classified_as":[{"id":"http://vocab.getty.edu/aat/300435446","type":"Type","_label":"Creator Description"}]}],"carried_out_by":[{"id":"https://media.art.yale.edu/content/lux/agt/19299.json","type":"Person","_label":"Artist: Anselm Kiefer (German, born 1945)"}]}],"timespan":{"type":"TimeSpan","begin_of_the_begin":"2001-01-01T00:00:00Z","end_of_the_end":"2001-12-31T00:00:00Z","identified_by":[{"type":"Name","content":"2001","classified_as":[{"id":"http://vocab.getty.edu/aat/300404669","type":"Type","_label":"Display Date"}]}]}},"shows":[{"id":"https://media.art.yale.edu/content/lux/vis/100898.json","type":"VisualItem","_label":"Die Ungeborenen (The Unborn) [Visual Content]"}]}