OFFER THEMED TOURS
on ART and PHILOSOPHY
Museum Frieder Burda
Baden-Baden
Rivaling Reality. 60 Years of Photorealism
To August 02, 2026
Themed tour in English or German, 60 mins., by arrangement: +49 (0)7223 912 9174 or msauer@bildphilosophie.de
Chuck Close, Phil, 1969, acryl and graphite on canvas, 275 x 213,4 cm, Whitney Museum of American Art during the tour with Dr. Daniel Zamani, artistic director at Museum Frieder Burda, Photo: Martina Sauer. February, 26, 2026
Themed Tour: Reality is Reality, isn’t it?
Can we seriously talk about 60 years of photorealism? Reality is reality, isn’t it? Is there a difference between this and fact, which rightly comes up here?
Furthermore, the 33 artists featured are not photographers, but painters. Their 95 works in total provide ample scope and cause for discussion. Hmm, and against this backdrop of questions, what about the significance of the media, be it photography in relation to painting, or stencil techniques and the use of computers, which are also employed here? An exciting exhibition addressing contemporary issues of our time.
*Literature on the subject available for free download, using the example of Karin Kneffel, who is represented in the exhibition; see Martina Sauer, 09/2020 ‘What is reality? Walter Benjamin, Roland Barthes, Jacques Derrida, Judith Butler, and the artist Karin Kneffel on the deconstruction of the familar as liberation from determiniation. In: Martina Sauer (ed.) On the Postmodern Age [Art Style 6]: 101—120.
Museum HAUS KIEFER
Ottersdorf/Rastatt
Friedhofstr. 1, 76437 Rastatt-Ottersdorf
Anselm Kiefer: Watercolors and Books 1969-2017
From March 20, 2026
Themed tours (with security outside opening hours)
by arrangement in German or English, 90 mins.:
msauer@bildphilosophie.de
+49 7223 9129174 (AB)
"I WANTED TO BE POPE.". Anselm Kiefer during the opening of the HAUS KIEFER in Ottersdorf in Rastatt April 27, 2025 (see blog post)
Photo: Martina Sauer
Photo: Homepage HAUS KIEFER, Ticketservice. Anselm Kiefer. Noch nicht. 1974. Watercolor and pen on paper, 23,3 x 32 cm
Themed tour: Towards the Traces of Expression and its Meaning
Can emotions be expressed more easily through the swift, light strokes of watercolors than through classical painting? Here, a liberated, delicate vitality; there, a tamed, controlled expression? Do Kiefer and Nolde have more in common than one might suspect?
Against this backdrop, following the traces of expression in Anselm Kiefer’s watercolors and books in the new exhibition at HAUS KIEFER is a challenge. For in these works, the delicate, transparent traces of the watercolor pencils—both in individual images and as a series—combine in a poetic and intimate manner with themes such as landscapes, human figures and self-portraits, as well as with motifs from history, mythology, literature, philosophy, alchemy and the richness of human physical sensation.
For further reading on Anselm Kiefer, see Martina Sauer’s book on Anselm Kiefer’s images of Germany, which was awarded the Hans and Lea Grundig Prize by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation [1st ed. 2012]. Heidelberg: Arthistoricum 2018 (free download)