Anselm Kiefer lives and works in Paris. A controversial artist, his earliest works in the 1960s focused on installations and happenings, to later move on to painting, which he blends with sculpture and photography through collages and assemblages. In his works, which are generally large scale, the material brushstrokes are combined with materials such as straw, lead, ash and plants, etc.. History, literature, philosophy, mythology, architecture and religion are the main themes he works on in favour of a collective awareness and the retrieval of historical memory as a protection against barbarity. Kiefer has participated in the Venice Biennale (1980, 1997), the São Paulo Biennale (1987) and the Documenta of Kassel (1977). Some of the most prominent institutions that have mounted his exhibitions are the Musée d'Art de la Ville de Paris (1984), The Israel Museum of Jerusalem (1984), The Art Institute of Chicago (1987), The Museum of Modern Art of New York (1987), The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York (1998), The National Gallery of London (2000), Fondation Beyeler, Basel (2001), San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, (2005), the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao (2007) and Es Baluard Museu d’Art Modern i Contemporani de Palma (2009). E.B.