Born in Germany in 1945, Anselm Kiefer has devoted much of his career to grappling with the aftermath of W.W. II. His paintings, sculptures, and large-scale installations confront history, memory, and the weight of the country’s past. In the 1970s, Kiefer’s paintings often featured light blues, pinks, and whites. By the 1980s, his canvases had grown darker and more textured, ominous in both tone and subject. Then, two years ago, Kiefer went softer, unveiling a series of watercolors that celebrated spontaneity, ecstasy, and the feminine. He now continues that exploration with a new body of work on view at Gagosian’s West 24th Street outpost. Drawing inspiration from the poet Rainer Maria Rilke, the painter Caspar David Friedrich, and female figures from classical mythology, Kiefer—in glints of gold leaf and washes of green—finds rebirth in the landscape. —Jeanne Malle