Parsifal III 1973

Curator: The artwork before us, "Parsifal III," was created by Anselm Kiefer in 1973. It combines oil paint and wood. It feels to me almost like a stage set, with this single spear waiting for a drama to unfold. What's your first impression? Editor: Foreboding! Definitely. The sepia tones evoke a weighty nostalgia, and that stark interior...it feels like the aftermath of something. It's very evocative of a place abandoned or haunted. Is the interior the architecture symbolic? Curator: Absolutely. Kiefer returns again and again to attic spaces, representing them as containers for cultural memory. Often, as here, that memory is connected to Wagnerian myth. This piece is part of a larger series referencing Parsifal, Wagner's opera about the Holy Grail. So this interior space serves to place us inside Parsifal’s quest and explore the relationship of his myth to German cultural memory. Editor: So the setting isn't accidental. This skeletal structure becomes the psychological interior of the Parsifal story. I'm drawn to how the oil paint seems almost dry-brushed here on the planked floors, emphasizing the material roughness. It has a certain bleak beauty, don't you think? Curator: I do. The layering of materials and symbols works to create complex associations, which I find truly compelling. For example, look how the spear becomes almost like a relic…suggesting something revered or held precious that still manages to also pierce the stage. Editor: Precisely! It suggests vulnerability too. This artwork manages to evoke themes of romantic yearning and loss without explicitly showing a single human figure. Instead the place embodies the weight of human experience, and it gives me the strange sense that the story can happen again here. Like waiting. Curator: Yes. Its cyclical interpretation… the narrative loops back into itself. Overall, the stark composition resonates far beyond its material form. Editor: I agree. There is a kind of understated and looming sense here which carries with the viewer.