Bam! Nonchalantly entering Gagosian to see the Anselm Kiefer show I was suddenly punched by a massive world of power, thrown out of my comfort zone, my inner being of collective societal memory thrust bare and exposed, as if the horrors of human life since its mythical beginnings with Adam and Eve were being paraded in front and through me. Kiefer’s “paintings” are huge, extending almost floor-to-ceiling and wall-to-wall in Gagosian’s colossal space. But their scale creates only part of their impact. I put “paintings” in quotes because, though mostly made with emulsions of paint and gold leaf, Kiefer includes complete bicycles (that actually look tiny within these looming outpourings of raw emotion), shopping carts, and other symbols of contemporary life into his crusty decaying worlds of black and grease, death and history, bringing our world into the mythical world of creation and destruction. Globs of paint exude out, while sudden patches of unexpected orange and gold illuminate the allegories of forever space, and written quotes in Hebrew, French and German from the Old Testament and writers important to Kiefer let us know these works of art are about so much more than art. They are life, death, the struggle to survive the horrors of humanity against humanity. This exhibition is a pulsating penetration of raw emotion that photos simply cannot replicate. It is a must-see show. The exhibition remains on view through Dec. 23.