New at the Broad: Anselm Kiefer, Mickalene Thomas
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| Anselm Kiefer, Grenze (Border), 2024. The Broad |
The Broad has put on view new acquisitions by Anselm Kiefer and Mickalene Thomas. Kiefer's Grenze (Border) was featured in the artist's 2025 show at the St. Louis Art Museum. The Rückenfigur is identified as the artist wearing his father's Nazi army uniform. He has crossed a puddle and faces a barbed-wire horizon and a sky of gold leaf.
Grenze is from a group of paintings whose media are described as "emulsion, oil, acrylic, shellac, gold leaf, and sediment of electrolysis"—ingredients Kiefer connects to alchemy. The canvas is 12.5 by 18.7 ft.
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| Detail of Grenze (Border) |
Completely different in mood and media (rhinestones and acrylic) is November 1971, a painting included in the Broad's 2024 exhibition "Mickalene Thomas: All About Love."
Eli Broad collected Kiefer from his 1980s heyday onward, assembling 15 major works. He did not collect Thomas at all, but November 1971 now becomes the third work by the artist at the Broad, all added since 2021.
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| Mickalene Thomas, November 1971, 2024. The Broad. (c) Mickalene Thomas |
Comments
https://www.wga.hu/html_m/g/gogh_van/09/arles58.html
Re Mickalene Thomas's "November 1971", of 2024: I regret, homosexually, I cannot read her.
(Female figure)
Jordan Wolfson
Accession Date: 03/10/15
72 x 29 in. (182.9 x 73.7 cm)
Jordan Wolfson’s (Female figure), 2014, is an immersive environment
that features a robotic sculpture. For twelve minutes, the robot gives
monologues and dances to pop songs. {End quote]
^ That work in particular is ready-made for what a lot of would-be visitors to the Lucas Museum (or AMPAS) would love to see. Or what they'd expect if they dropped by one of the amusement parks of LA or Florida. lol.
As for LACMA, this looks bad. Too much gray concrete and a display table that even Ikea might feel embarrassed about. Or if the platform for the small sculptures is weak, at least don't have objects on it looking like they're at a local discount store:
I hope the photo actually caught a gallery where everything is still makeshift. Even more so since the paintings on the wall look like they're tentatively arranged too---haphazard gaps and large works next to a jumble of small ones?
https://media.vanityfair.com/photos/69a84cf95d4deb737de69b4d/master/w_1600,c_limit/0426_LACMA_embed_04_a.jpg