Anselm Kiefer

Morgenthau Plan . 2012

+ Gagosian Gallery . Artribune

In "Morgenthau Plan," the gallery is filled with a sculpture of a golden wheat field, enclosed within a five-meter high steel cage. Kiefer's wheat field refers to the plan proposed in 1944 by former United States Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau to transform Germany after World War II into a pre-industrial, agricultural state thereby limiting its ability to wage war. Morgenthau sought to divide Germany into two independent states; annexing or dismantling all German centers of industry in a devastating arrangement that would have led to the death of millions of citizens by pestilence and starvation. Although the Morgenthau Plan was never realized, it represented a potential alternative German history.
Gagosian Gallery