Margarete. 1982.
Mixed media. Dispersion paint, straw and liquid glue over photograph on paper.
Inscribed "Margarete" in upper left. 59 x 83 cm (23.2 x 32.6 in). [SM].

• From the important work series that examines Paul Celan‘s famous poem "Death Fugue"
• "Dein Goldenes Haar, Margarete"Kiefer‘s most significant work from the series, is on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

PROVENANCE: Galerie Paul Maenz, Cologne.
Private collection Southern Gerrmany (acquired from aforementioned in 1982).

Black milk of daybreak we drink you at nightfall
we drink you at noon in the mornings we drink you at nightfall
drink you and drink you
a man in the house your golden hair Margarete
your ashen hair Shulamith he plays with the serpents
He shouts play sweeter death's music death comes as a master from Germany
he shouts stroke darker the strings and as smoke you shall climb to the sky
then you'll have a grave in the clouds it is ample to lie there
(Excerpt from the poem "Todesfuge" from 1945)