Arturo Galansino – författare

Kiefer’s dramatic, metallic paintings and sculptures staged within the walls of a cinquecento palace

The historic Palazzo Strozzi in Florence welcomes one of the greatest masters of art of the late 20th and early 21st century: Anselm Kiefer. Famous for his striking works that investigate the themes of memory, myth, war and existence, Kiefer presents an itinerary through his historical works and new productions, in an original dialogue with the Palazzo’s architecture and Italian history.Each of Kiefer’s paintings and sculptures expresses a monumentality and powerful materiality, part of the infinite wealth of resources with which he probes the depths of memory and the past. From the beginning of his career, he has embarked on an artistic journey in which history, religion, mysticism, poetry and philosophy combine and mingle. His late 1960s works were among the first to reflect on the history of World War II and Germany’s emotional and cultural legacy. Yet in this consequential space, Kiefer’s drastic compositions layered in gold and silver take on a new significance in the context of the theatrical and deeply religious paintings of the Italian Renaissance. This exhibition, and its dazzling monograph, restores the vital complexity of Kiefer’s art: celebrating its interweaving of figural art and abstraction, nature and artificiality, creation and destruction, in a strong engagement for the public in the physical and conceptual space of his works.German artist Anselm Kiefer (born 1945) developed his signature style of multimedia impasto painting through the influence of Neo-Expressionism and artists such as Joseph Beuys and Georg Baselitz. His art incorporates global religious traditions and occult teachings, while also reckoning with the legacy of the Third Reich.

A dazzling, interactive light display in a Renaissance courtyard connects the history of art with the age of technology

The Dutch duo Lonneke Gordijn (born 1980) and Ralph Nauta (born 1978), working together as DRIFT, have gained an international reputation at the head of a multidisciplinary team of 64 artists and designers who create works able to transform and choreograph space. After interventions at Burning Man in the Nevada desert, NASA and the Victoria & Albert Museum, the duo proposes a performance in the courtyard of Palazzo Strozzi that is a breathtaking blend of art and technology. Fusing installation, sculpture and music, Shy Society turns the Renaissance courtyard into an enveloping stage, setting up a dialogue between nature and technology, knowledge and intuition, and science and poetry. The work is an invitation to look again at the historical context of the building as a new and evocative venue and setting, where each visitor becomes the protagonist of a multisensory experience that prompts a reconsideration of the space that surrounds us.

Provocative yet deeply personal, Emin’s carnal, soul-bearing mixed-media works combine corporeal and emotional pain

The art of YBA mainstay Tracey Emin (born 1963) is an art of denunciation: one that utilizes the events of her life as a source of inspiration for her works in painting, neon sculpture, drawing, video, installation, photography, embroidery and sculpture. Vulnerability, crudity and physicality are all present in her works such as My Bed or her recent Lovers Grave paintings, creating an oeuvre in which desire and suffering go hand in hand. Emin candidly reveals her hopes and humiliations with an immediacy and a sexually provocative attitude that takes cues from artists such as Egon Schiele and Edvard Munch. Through a selection of historic and more recent works from public and private collections around the world, this eponymous catalog presents 30 years of Emin’s work, whose controversial and lacerating aesthetics has strongly influenced the image of the female body in contemporary art.