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My Father Pledged Me a Sword

1975
Not on view
This title comes from a scene in Wagner’s opera Die Walküre (The Valkyrie), in which Wotan’s son Siegmund, needing a weapon to fight the unwanted husband of his sister Sieglinde, cries out, "My father pledged me a sword." Instead of lodging the sword in an ash tree, as told in Germanic myths, Kiefer located it near the apex of a high cliff, where it would be dangerously inaccessible like Edelweiss, a plant native only to very high mountains. In the Alps, it is tradition to risk one’s life by scaling a cliff to obtain it as a lover’s gift. Just as the pursuit of Edelweiss is often deadly, so too is Siegmund’s plight; he eventually dies in battle with his sword Nothung ("needful") shattered.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: My Father Pledged Me a Sword
  • Artist: Anselm Kiefer (German, born Donaueschingen, 1945)
  • Date: 1975
  • Medium: Watercolor, opaque watercolor and colored pencil on paper
  • Dimensions: 12 5/8 x 9 1/2 in. (32.1 x 24.1 cm)
  • Classification: Drawings
  • Credit Line: Purchase, Lila Acheson Wallace Gift, 1995
  • Object Number: 1995.14.15
  • Rights and Reproduction: © Anselm Kiefer
  • Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art

More Artwork

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Morgenthau Plan, Anselm Kiefer German, Acrylic, emulsion, oil, and shellac on inkjet prints mounted on canvas
Morgenthau Plan
Anselm Kiefer
2012
Let a Thousand Flowers Bloom, Anselm Kiefer German, Gouache, sand, ash and charcoal on two torn and pasted photographs
Let a Thousand Flowers Bloom
Anselm Kiefer
2000
Autumn Forest, Anselm Kiefer German, Watercolor, opaque watercolor, and graphite on papers
Autumn Forest
Anselm Kiefer
1970
Wild Emperor, Anselm Kiefer German, Watercolor and acrylic on paper
Wild Emperor
Anselm Kiefer
1975
Brünnhilde's Death, Anselm Kiefer German, India ink, watercolor, and acrylic on joined paper
Brünnhilde's Death
Anselm Kiefer
1976

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