Varus-Where are my Legions?

 "Varus"
Anselm Kiefer
1976


As any who have been following my blog know I am a complete history wonk, especially when the history of the world and the history of art collide.  I am always trying to teach students that to understand art you must understand the history behind it.  This September I am reminded of possibly one of the most important events in history and the art inspired by it.

In September 9 ad. the entire three legions of Caeser Augustus' expeditionary force was wiped out by German Tribal Forces in what has come to be known as The Battle of Teutoburg Forest.    Led by general Varus, 20,000 Roman legionnaires were slaughtered and never found.  It is recorded that til the end of his life Augustus would wander the imperial palace muttering "Varus, where are my legions!"


Varus Massacre Scene from "I Claudius" 

 But the history of this battle doesn't end there.  This region would become one of the most fought-over and contested parcels of land in history.  For the next 2000 years hundreds of battles and over a 15 million lives would be lost on this ground only about the size of the State of Massachusetts.

 In 1815 the battle of Waterloo would take place less than 200 miles away between Napoleon's army and Wellington's German allies killing a total of over 30,000 soldiers.

In 1900 a newly unified Greater German Empire under its Kaiser erected a monument on the site of the Teutoburg battle heralding new age of German Nationalism and Teutonic manifest destiny.


By the height of WWI at the Battle of the Argonne Forest and the war of the Western Front would again tear this region apart claiming in some estimates 10 million lives!

 

Battle of the Ardennes Forest from "Band of Brothers"

Only thirty years later this battered ground would be the site of some of the most bitterly fought over land of WWII, as Hitler's counter offensive in the winter of 1944 at the Battle of the Bulge in the Ardennes forest killing another 50,000 soldiers on both sides.  Some historians have suggested that it was Hitler's strategy to recreate the Battle of Teutoburg Forest and the German victory over a superior invading army that led him to conceive the offensive.


In 1976 when the German artist Alselm Kiefer paints his image "Varus" he is not merely painting a landscape.  He is painting the layers of blood and lives and souls that had died in that forest.  He is painting the hallowed ground where Varus and thousands of ghosts still walk, there names carved into the very forest itself.


When we begin to understand history, we can begin to understand art.


Thank you


WOC

Artist of the Month-Anselm Kiefer

Dark paths wandering through ancient forests haunted by ghosts, barren landscapes scourged by a thousand years of armies, echoing halls filled with the voices of un-remembered stories. Lord of the Rings?, Wagner?, Grimm's Fairy Tales?

There is probably no living artist who has influenced my work more than Anselm Kiefer. (b. 1945) Embodying the essence of Post-Modernist ideals Kiefer's work discarded the modernist concept that art should have no ties to the past and that traditional story telling and painting should be abandoned. Surrounded in my college years by teachers who were steadfast devotees of Modernism, Kiefer for me was an unparalleled inspiration. He not only made paintings, he made Huge paintings, about epic subjects. War, Death, Religion, History, all shrouded in the mythological context of his German heritage.

Kiefer's moody and titanic works appear like massive relics of some ancient ruin which still inform my work today. His use of found objects, raw materials and the layering of text and surface to create tonal mood is echoed every time I overlay a texture into my digital paintings, or create a custom brush. His reverence of mythology encouraged me to read the Norse myths and Authurian Legends which furthered my love of Fantasy and works of Tolkien. Although I know that his neo-expressionistic collages are depicting Germany's dark past, for me, whenever I look at his paintings I am equally reminded of Tolkien's bleak descriptions of Mirkwood, The Mines of Moria and Mordor.
Enjoy.

WOC

at top: Varus. 1976
oil and acrylic on burlap
Royal Museum of fine Arts, Antwerp















Shulamith. 1983
mixed media on canvas 114"x 145"
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA)














Nuremburg. 1982
mixed media on canvas 110"x 149"
Private Collection, Los Angeles

POSTSCRIPT....
I assume that it is not by coincidence that the artists who designed The Ministry of Magic in the 2007 film Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix made the black-tiled walls look like Keifer's "Shulamith"...