Lia Rumma Gallery in Naples is pleased to present several works of Anselm Kiefer which form part of the recent series Die Frauen der Antike (The women of antiquity).
Fascinated by the expressive force of the material, the artist paints works of monumental proportions in which techniques and different materials combine to achieve a dramatic effect. Kiefer undertakes a personal investigation into collective memory. His huge canvases, like the books by the artist, express an idea of history as a series of catastrophes which, only if mankind confronts them can it redeem itself in the form of tremendous catharsis. Among the various themes he has tackled, he has faced thorny issues such as the history and national identity of Germany.
The two exhibition spaces in Lia Rumma Gallery in Naples are used to present his most work “The women of antiquity” (1999).
Kiefer seems to have united in these works a series of female characters representing both mythological and real characters who have left a mark on ancient history. He evokes them, almost lending presence to their absence, through seven headless figures dressed in sumptuous whitened and painted clothes, stiffened by their immersion in a chalk bath and characterized by certain symbolic elements such as barbed wire, lead, dead branches, hair… Some of the clothes are free-standing as though they were autonomous sculptures, behind which are large white panels on which the names of the depicted characters stand out. Others are suspended, stuck on lead stands, besieged by a tangle of wire. These elements all form an imposing historical fresco in which each woman bears the burden of the attributes that reveal her identity and allude to her personal identity.
This exhibition consolidates the gallery’s relationship with the artist; his works in lead and the series of “Travel” were presented in Naples in 1992 and, in 1999, in the Milan gallery, there was an exhibition of the large canvases of the series “Lasst tausend Blümen blühen”.

Press release