"Anselm Kiefer (b. 1945) is one of the most important and controversial artists of the twentieth century. This book, the first to analyze the essence of his work, begins with Kiefer's arrival on the international art scene at the 1980 Venice Biennale, when he sparked heated debate and controversy over the "Germanity" of his pieces. Since that time, through such diverse mediums as painting, gouache and watercolor, photography, artist's books, engravings, installations, and sculpture, Kiefer has created a body of work that is protean, theatrical, monumental, or intimate, depending on the period. He has interpreted the great political and cultural issues at the heart of the modern European sensibility: the connections among memory, history, and mythology; war; the Holocaust; and ethnic and national identity."--BOOK JACKET.