Anselm Kiefer Exhibition 'Female Alchemists' Opens at Milan's Sala delle Cariatidi, Thaddaeus Ropac Announces
On June 30, 2026, Thaddaeus Ropac gallery announced that Anselm Kiefer has chosen Milan's Sala delle Cariatidi—a room supported by forty war-damaged Caryatid columns—to present a series of large-scale panels honoring female alchemists largely erased from history. Thirty-eight panels, all from 2025 and some exceeding eighteen feet in height, are arranged like altar pieces across the room and an adjoining salon. The works depict women alchemists, some with gold leaf surrounds evocative of Matthias Grünewald's 'Resurrection,' and include 'Lapis niger,' a boulder suspended by a thread over a woman carrying a crucible of molten gold.
The Signal
The exhibition signals Kiefer's continued engagement with alchemy as both a historical practice and a metaphor for artistic transformation, linking it to Carl Jung's theories and modern physics. By installing these works in a space scarred by war, Kiefer draws a parallel between the precarious fates of historical alchemists and the fragility of cultural memory. For collectors, the show reinforces Kiefer's position as a leading figure in contemporary art who consistently bridges myth, history, and material experimentation, while the specific site—a rarely used hall in Milan's royal palace—adds institutional prestige and historical resonance to the presentation.
- Artists: Anselm Kiefer, Leonora Carrington
- People: Ann McCoy, Carl Jung
- Galleries: Thaddaeus Ropac
- Locations: Milan
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