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Böhmen liegt am Meer (Bohemia Lies by the Sea)

1996
Not on view
Kiefer’s nearly fifty-year exploration of the complications of history has taken both monumental and intimate forms. For this work, he chose an immense double canvas on which to present an isolated country road seen through a field covered with poppies. Associated with sleep and also emblematic of military veterans, the poppies are described with paint the color of dried blood. The title, inscribed along the narrow horizon and again on the path, comes from a poem by Ingeborg Bachmann (1926–1973) about longing for utopia while recognizing that it can never be found, just as Bohemia—the landlocked region in Central Europe annexed by Nazi Germany as the Sudetenland—can never lie by the sea.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Böhmen liegt am Meer (Bohemia Lies by the Sea)
  • Artist: Anselm Kiefer (German, born Donaueschingen, 1945)
  • Date: 1996
  • Medium: Oil, emulsion, shellac, charcoal, and powdered paint on burlap
  • Dimensions: 75 1/4 in. × 18 ft. 5 in. (191.1 × 561.3 cm)
    Other (left panel component a): 75 1/4 in. × 9 ft. 2 1/2 in. (226.1 × 280.7 cm)
    Other (right panel component b): 75 1/4 in. × 9 ft. 2 1/2 in. (226.1 × 280.7 cm)
  • Classification: Paintings
  • Credit Line: Purchase, Lila Acheson Wallace Gift and Joseph H. Hazen Foundation Purchase Fund, 1997
  • Object Number: 1997.4a, b
  • Rights and Reproduction: © Anselm Kiefer
  • Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art

Audio

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1990. Bohemia Lies by the Sea

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More Artwork

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Morgenthau Plan, Anselm Kiefer German, Acrylic, emulsion, oil, and shellac on inkjet prints mounted on canvas
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Let a Thousand Flowers Bloom, Anselm Kiefer German, Gouache, sand, ash and charcoal on two torn and pasted photographs
Let a Thousand Flowers Bloom
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Autumn Forest, Anselm Kiefer German, Watercolor, opaque watercolor, and graphite on papers
Autumn Forest
Anselm Kiefer
1970
Your Golden Hair, Margarete, Anselm Kiefer German, Watercolor, gouache, and acrylic on paper
Your Golden Hair, Margarete
Anselm Kiefer
1980
Wild Emperor, Anselm Kiefer German, Watercolor and acrylic on paper
Wild Emperor
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