Kiefer honors forgotten female alchemists in war-scarred Milan ballroom with monumental exhibition

MILAN (AP) — German contemporary artist Anselm Kiefer pays tribute to one of Milan’s most majestic yet melancholy spaces inside Palazzo Reale with the site-specific exhibition titled “The Women Alchemists,’’ previewed on Tuesday as part of the city’s cultural programming for the 2026 Winter Olympics

The artist was inspired by the crumbling caryatids, or sculpted female figures that served as architectural supports, inside the palace’s Sala delle Cariatidi, a ceremonial hall severely damaged in a 1943 Allied bombing during World War II.

Kiefer said he was immediately inspired by the room and the fragmented female figures, left as a memorial to the destruction of war.

“I quickly came to the idea of the women alchemists, that is, women who were equal with men, who experimented with medicine exactly as men,’’ said Kiefer, 80, one of Germany’s most acclaimed postwar artists known for monumental works that examine history, memory and collective trauma.

He set to work on 42 panels, some six meters (nearly 19 feet) tall, each featuring a female alchemist whose contributions to early chemistry and medicine were lost to history, elevating male achievement instead.

Despite the subject matter, the artist insisted his was not a feminist exhibition.

“I am half woman. How can it be feminist?’’ he asked a packed conference room, to applause.

The show’s curator, Gabriella Belli, clarified that the show was “an act of important recognition, and not necessarily an act of justice or feminism.’’

Kiefer initially wanted to hang the paintings high on the wall above the fragile caryatids, but that wasn’t allowed.

Instead, the paintings zig-zag across the ballroom floor like ornamental screens, creating a pathway for visitors to reflect on the lives of the 38 women depicted, including Milan’s own Caterina Sforza, whose father was Galeazzo Maria Sforza, Duke of Milan from 1466-1476.

The images play off the original wall mirrors by the artist’s intention, creating “an interaction between what is hidden, and what is revealed,’’ Kiefer said. He achieved the effect by recreating the museum space in his studio, placing mirrors in their corresponding positions.

Kiefer represents each of his female alchemists in full figure, contrasting with the crumbling half-bodies of the caryatids.

The imposing canvases invite reflection in the swirls of thick paint, dominated by a blueish-green, gold, black and silver. The female alchemists, often seen as witches, are depicted with three-dimensional plants that formed the basis of their work, and books where they recorded their results. There are clouds and shrouds, denoting their mystery.

“Kiefer is an alchemist in the way he approaches art,’’ said Belli, the curator. “For him, painting is always birth, destruction, regeneration, birth, destruction, regeneration. This is the process of alchemy, which is the transformation of matter.''

“The Women Alchemists” runs Feb. 7-Sept. 27, part of the city of Milan’s cultural calendar to accompany the Games that also includes the rare opening of a room in the Sforza Castle featuring a wall painting by Leonardo da Vinci.

Kiefer has a long history with Italy and Milan. His installation, “The Seven Heavenly Palaces,” is a permanent exhibition across town in the Hangar Bicocca, making the similarly monumental “The Women Alchemists” exhibition a powerful counterpoint.

Still, the city’s top cultural official, Tommaso Sacchi, said there are no plans at the moment to keep the exhibition on permanent display.

“I am not here to announce the complete donation of the works to Palazzo Reale,’’ Sacchi joked.

A view of the presentation of Anselm Kiefer's exhibition Le Alchimiste at Palazzo Reale, part of the official cultural programme for the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2026. (Claudio Furlan/LaPresse via AP)

A view of the presentation of Anselm Kiefer's exhibition Le Alchimiste at Palazzo Reale, part of the official cultural programme for the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2026. (Claudio Furlan/LaPresse via AP)

A view of part of the artwork on display of Anselm Kiefer's exhibition Le Alchimiste at Palazzo Reale, part of the official cultural programme for the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2026. (Claudio Furlan/LaPresse via AP)

German painter and sculptor Anselm Kiefer is photographed during the presentation of his exhibition Le Alchimiste, at Palazzo Reale, part of the official cultural programme for the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2026. (Claudio Furlan/LaPresse via AP)

SILVER SPRING, Md. (AP) — A former guitarist for Grammy-winning Baltimore hardcore band Turnstile has been charged with attempted murder after authorities say he chased down and struck a former bandmate's father with his car, badly injuring him.

Montgomery County police officers responding to a Sunday report about a pedestrian being struck in the Washington, D.C., suburb of Silver Spring found William Yates, the 79-year-old father of lead singer Brendan Yates, injured in a front yard, according to charging documents.

Yates' family said guitarist Brady Ebert, a neighbor who parted ways with the band several years ago, had struck him with a car, police wrote. Yates’ daughter, Erin Gerber, told authorities that she and her husband were getting their kids out of their car when Ebert drove up honking at them and yelling obscenities, then drove into her father.

In video footage obtained from a neighbor, Ebert could be seen driving a gold Buick LeSabre and swerving toward William Yates but missing him, according to the charging documents. Yates then threw a rock at Ebert’s vehicle and Gerber dragged her 3-year-old son onto the lawn to avoid being hit. Ebert then turned sharply into Yates' driveway and struck him as he was trying to run away, investigators wrote. Ebert finally drove across the lawn and left.

Yates told a detective that as he was injured on the ground, Ebert returned and yelled that he “deserved it” before driving off again, according to charging documents.

Yates said Ebert used to be in a band with his son and had been causing problems for his family since being kicked out. He said Ebert had been taunting them for long time, but that his behavior had been escalating.

Ebert, 33, was arrested Tuesday and charged with attempted second-degree murder and first-degree assault, court records show.

During a bond hearing Thursday in which he appeared via video, Ebert called William Yates a “maniac” who threw a rock at him asked the judge to watch the surveillance footage, saying it would “contradict” the authorities' narrative of what happened, The Baltimore Banner reported.

But prosecutor Dominic Plantamura said the footage shows it was a “clearly targeted attack” and that Yates is lucky he wasn't injured more seriously.

Ebert's lawyer, John Costello, acknowledged Ebert’s contentious history with his former bandmate, but said, “That does not, in this instance, warrant extra detention.” Costello’s office declined to comment to The Associated Press.

The judge ordered Ebert held without bond.

According to Plantamura, William Yates was injured so badly that a bone stuck out of one leg.

In a statement, Turnstile said it cut ties with Ebert in 2022, “in response to a consistent pattern of harmful behavior." It said a boundary had to be set after he began threatening violence. While Ebert’s “baseless tirades” continued in public since then, the band said it didn’t address them to protect his privacy. Threats escalated in recent months and then there was a physical attack on Brendan Yates’ father this week, the band wrote.

“We are grateful that Mr. Yates survived, has successfully undergone surgery, and we’re hoping for the best possible outcome in his recovery,” the band said. “We have no language left for Brady.”

Turnstile were underground stalwarts until their 2021 album “Glow On” launched them into mainstream consciousness. They cemented their status this year by winning Grammys for Best Rock Album and Best Metal Performance.

FILE - Turnstile's guitarist Brady Ebert performs at the Coachella Music & Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Club, Friday, April 19, 2019, in Indio, Calif. (Photo by Amy Harris/Invision/AP)