Page opening 11 from "The Heavenly Palaces: Merkabah" 1990

Curator: This is page 11 from Anselm Kiefer’s "The Heavenly Palaces: Merkabah," currently held at the Harvard Art Museums. It's a substantial piece, roughly 100 by 141 centimeters. Editor: Stark. Bleak. It feels like looking at a ruined landscape, or maybe a photographic negative of one. Curator: Kiefer often engages with themes of destruction and rebirth. The Merkabah tradition, with its mystical ascent to heaven, is ripe with symbolic opportunity. The white could symbolize divine light breaking through a dark world. Editor: Perhaps. Or perhaps it's the blinding effect of historical trauma, the blanketing of truth under layers of official narrative. Curator: Kiefer’s work often operates on multiple levels of interpretation, doesn't it? The symbolism is never one-dimensional. Editor: Exactly, which makes experiencing pieces like this so rewarding. Curator: Indeed, a profound exploration of faith, memory, and the weight of history.