Officer's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
2005 · Award
Austrian Decoration for Science and Art
2005
“Für Paul Celan” in Salzburg
His second show at Ropac's Salzburg gallery linked Germanic mythology with the poetry of Paul Celan, a German-speaking Jew from Czernowitz: eleven canvases, bound books in display cases and five sculptures, among them a monumental outdoor piece of reinforced concrete and lead and two leaden books from the series “The Secret Life of Plants”. In 2006 the show travelled to Paris.
2007
Opens the first “Monumenta” at the Grand Palais
For the inaugural “Monumenta” at the Grand Palais in Paris Kiefer created a huge site-specific installation of sculptures and paintings, paying special tribute to the poets Paul Celan and Ingeborg Bachmann.
2007
A permanent work for the Louvre, the first since Braque
Kiefer became the first living artist since Georges Braque in 1953 to create a permanent site-specific installation at the Louvre: a triptych of the mural “Athanor” and the sculptures “Danae” and “Hortus Conclusus”.
2008
Moves to Paris: 110 lorries of work
Kiefer left Barjac for Paris: 110 lorries carried his work to a 3,300 m² warehouse in Croissy-Beaubourg, once the depository of the La Samaritaine department store. He lived in a large house in the Marais with his second wife, the Austrian photographer Renate Graf, and their two children; the abandoned Barjac was left to a caretaker, and the artist spent the summer of 2019 living and working there again.
