Art is a matter of space and time created with a medium appropriate to its own form of expression. Artistic form is the emotional form that results from the creative function of the mind. It is the embodiment of the feeling-thought experience that is impossible to express in words. Concepts related to the functioning of the mind such as memory, thinking and imagination are the concepts that form the basis of artistic creation and are related to the human nature of creation. In the postmodern process, with the conceptualization of art and discourse becoming important, creation has turned into a mind-based phenomenon that draws its power from concepts. Creation becomes defined only by the meanings attributed to the work of art from outside, independent of the aesthetic experience of the mind. With postmodernism, where even an ordinary object can be accepted as a work of art, works of art become linguistic surfaces that are deficient in terms of their existential essence and can be deciphered conceptually. Although the traditional understanding of representation has changed with the richness in techniques, materials and forms of expression, the relationship between creation and thought is reflected in the human nature of art. Questioning and understanding the context may enable us to produce solutions to the problem in question. At this point, Anselm Kiefer's creative process and works are important as they concretely exemplify the human nature of artistic creation. In his works in which the search for meaning in existence is intensely felt, Kiefer actually reconstructs his personal memory while presenting traces of collective memory with the contemporary materials, techniques and methods he uses. Thus, this study touches upon the changing phenomenon of representation with postmodernism and emphasizes the importance of the existential essence of artistic creation. It deals with Anselm Kiefer's works, which are concrete examples of his search for meaning in existence.
Keywords: Artistic thinking, memory, creation, postmodernism, representation