Anslem Kiefer has been called one of the great artists of our time, Germany’s greatest living artist and has been on the scene larger than life since the 70s. I began asking myself what makes for a “Great” artist?

Is it the 10,000 hours of working at something that Malcolm Gladwell suggests it takes a person to become a master? Is it the volume of work, having a compulsion, a personal vision, a burning idea which one feels compelled to impart, an innate ability or a learned craft? Is it a taking on of the mantel of one’s generation or one’s country? Is it planned out as a strategy, which seems suspiciously like what some of our Big Box artists today seem about (and is that bad, or just big business)? What about intimate art? What about art that doesn’t bash boundaries but is innovative in its honesty?

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