Anselm Kiefer: The Women Alchemists

This richly illustrated catalog accompanies The Women Alchemists, a major exhibition by Anselm Kiefer at Palazzo Reale in Milan. Conceived specifically for the historic Sala delle Cariatidi, the project represents one of the artist’s most ambitious recent undertakings, transforming the celebrated space into a meditation on memory, history, mythology, and the overlooked contributions of women to intellectual and spiritual life.

At the heart of the exhibition is a cycle of monumental paintings created in dialogue with the dramatic architecture of the Sala delle Cariatidi, a space still marked by the scars of wartime destruction. Through layered surfaces, symbolic imagery, and references to alchemical traditions, Kiefer explores the lives and legacies of thirty-three historical women whose work united science, spirituality, healing, and knowledge. Figures such as Caterina Sforza, Mary Anne Atwood, Sophie Brahe, and Isabella of Aragon emerge within a broader narrative that challenges conventional historical hierarchies and restores forgotten voices to cultural memory.

Published in collaboration with Palazzo Reale, this volume examines both the conception and realization of the project through scholarly essays and extensive visual documentation. The publication situates The Women Alchemists within Kiefer’s broader artistic practice, characterized by monumental scale, material experimentation, and engagement with history, religion, literature, and esoteric traditions.

This catalog offers an exceptional opportunity to explore one of the artist’s most conceptually ambitious projects and serves as an essential reference for collectors, scholars, and admirers of contemporary art.