A Book by Anselm Kiefer

One of the most important modern German painters, Kiefer is best known for his brooding forests and somber fields encrusted with debris, for his haunted monuments reeking of the Nazi past. In contrast, this series of bright, spontaneous watercolors reveals a wholly different side of the artist. In lyrically expressive seascapes and landscapes based on a 1974 trip along Norway's coast, icebergs, ships and magical skies abound. This sequence abruptly gives way to lush female nudes. Kiefer's colossal temptress is an earth goddess echoing commercial erotic poses, yet transformed through multiple associations with Nordic and Germanic legends. The sun of the earlier seascapes has become the nude's smudged red mouth; her stained body parts recall a Rorschach blot or perhaps Gustav Klimt. But the overall effect is slight compared to Kiefer's darker oils. In their introduction, Stebbins and Ricci, both of Boston's Museum of Fine Arts, discuss the centrality of myth in Kiefer's work. (September)