Famous for paintings and installations that explore mortality, beauty, and evil, Anselm Kiefer builds layers of historical reference into his work—an insistent form of remembering. He creates these layers with natural materials such as terra-cotta, fabric, copper, gold leaf, and wire, all enmeshed in oil paint. For this series, Kiefer adds inscriptions in Hebrew from the Book of Exodus, the second book of the Old Testament, which tells the story of how the Israelites left slavery and Biblical Egypt behind. These recent paintings are on view at Gagosian in New York, as well as at the gallery’s Marciano Art Foundation, in Los Angeles. —E.C.