MOUNT TABOR PAINTED BY ANSELM KIEFFER

ANSELM KIEFER (bn.1945)

Mount Tabor (575 m -1,886 ft)

Israel (Galilee)

In Mount Tabor, 2009) Oil, emulsion, acrylic, and shellac on canvas. 149 cmx 149 cm 

Courtesy  Gagosian Gallery

The mountain
Mount Tabor (575 m - 1,886 ft), (not to be confused with Mount Thabor int he French Alps ) is located in Lower Galilee, Israel, at the eastern end of the Jezreel Valley, 11 miles (18 km) west of the Sea of Galilee. Mount Tabor is a Inselberg : an isolated hill or small mountain rising abruptly from gently sloping or level surrounding land, and is not volcanic.
In the Hebrew Bible (Joshua, Judges), Mount Tabor is the site of the Battle of Mount Tabor between the Israelite army under the leadership of Barak and the army of the Canaanite king of Hazor, Jabin, commanded by Sisera.
In Christian tradition, Mount Tabor is the site of the Transfiguration of Jesus.
Mount Tabor is shaped almost like half a sphere, suddenly rising from rather flat surroundings and dominating the town in the plain below, Kfar Tavor. At the top of the mountain are two Christian monasteries, one Greek Orthodox on the northeast side and one Roman Catholic on the southeast side. The Catholic church at the top is easily visible from afar.
At the base it is almost fully surrounded by the Arab villages of Daburiyya, Shibli, and Umm al-Ghanam. Mount Tabor is located off Highway 65, and its summit is accessible by road via Shibli. A hiking tracks starts from the Bedouin village Shibli and is about five kilometers long. It is part of the Israel National Trail.

The painter 
Anselm Kiefer (born 8 March 1945) is a German painter and sculptor. He studied with Joseph Beuys and Peter Dreher during the 1970s. His works incorporate materials such as straw, ash, clay, lead, and shellac. The poems of Paul Celan have played a role in developing Kiefer's themes of German history and the horror of the Holocaust, as have the spiritual concepts of Kabbalah.
In his entire body of work, Kiefer argues with the past and addresses taboo and controversial issues from recent history. Themes from Nazi rule are particularly reflected in his work; for instance, the painting "Margarethe" (oil and straw on canvas) was inspired by Paul Celan's well-known poem "Todesfuge" ("Death Fugue").
His works are characterised by an unflinching willingness to confront his culture's dark past, and unrealised potential, in works that are often done on a large, confrontational scale well suited to the subjects. It is also characteristic of his work to find signatures and/or names of people of historical importance, legendary figures or historical places. All of these are encoded sigils through which Kiefer seeks to process the past; this has resulted in his work being linked with the movements New Symbolism and Neo–Expressionism.
Kiefer has lived and worked in France since 1992. Since 2008, he has lived and worked primarily in Paris and in Alcácer do Sal, Portugal.

 In 2018, he was awarded Austrian citizenship.

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau