News - Anselm Kiefer: Le Dormeur du Val

Bastian Gallery opens a new location in Berlin Dahlem next week with the inaugural exhibition Anselm Kiefer: Le Dormeur du Val...

Press Release

The Bastian family have created a new home for their gallery on Taylorstrasse in Dahlem close to the Grunewald Forest in the Southwest of Berlin and the new exhibition  Designed by renowned international architect John Pawson the new gallery building acknowledges its proximity to the nearby forest and park by adopting the typology of a pavilion. Pawson has established his reputation as one of the leading international architects of our time, fuelled by an uncompromising commitment to clarity whilst pursuing perfection in simplicity, brought together in a typically reductionist style.

Opening to the public on Saturday 13th November 2021, the inaugural presentation will be a major exhibition of new and recent paintings by Anselm Kiefer entitled Le Dormeur du Val (Sleeper in the Valley).

For this exhibition Kiefer draws his references from 19th century and modernist poetry, in particular Arthur Rimbaud’s “Sleeper in the Valley” [find the poem below - Ed]. The artist’s exploration of myth, world history and literature is rooted in a long standing interest in poets such as Paul Celan and Ingeborg Bachmann. This will be the first opportunity to see paintings that Kiefer created in his Parisian studio during the pandemic. Works by Anselm Kiefer are on view in the world’s leading museums and private collections.

In 2019, Céline, Heiner and Aeneas Bastian gifted their “Galeriehaus Am Kupfergraben” in the heart of Berlin to the State Museums and Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation. Later that year, Aeneas Bastian strengthened BASTIAN’s international presence with the opening of a new London gallery. As this new site opens in Berlin, Aeneas Bastian sees it as “a mark of confidence in a time weighed down by the impact of the pandemic and a pledge of faith in Berlin as a significant art location.”

ARTHUR RIMBAUD

LE DORMEUR DU VAL 

C'est un trou de verdure où chante une rivière
Accrochant follement aux herbes des haillons
D’argent; où le soleil, de la montagne fière,
Luit: c’est un petit val qui mousse de rayons.

Un soldat jeune, bouche ouverte, tête nue,
Et la nuque baignant dans le frais cresson bleu,
Dort; il est étendu dans l’herbe, sous la nue,
Pâle dans son lit vert où la lumière pleut.

Les pieds dans le s glaïeuls, il dort. Souriant comme
Sourirait un enfant malade, il fait un somme:
Nature, berce le chaudement: il a froid.

Les parfums ne font pas frissonner sa narine;
Il dort dans le soleil, la main sur sa poitrine
Tranquille. Il a deux trous rouges au côté droit.

Octobre 1870, Arthur Rimbaud, Sämtliche Dichtungen, Munich 1997, p.72

GALERIE BASTIAN, Taylorstraße 1, 14195 Berlin opens on 13th November.