Anselm Kiefer

 

Gregory Corso - 

Spirit is life It flows through the death of me endlessly  like a river unafraid of becoming the sea

The artist Anselm Kiefer (German b. 1945) visited the Saint Louis region in 1991 and it is reported that he was inspired and reminded of his youth and the Rhine river. The Saint Louis Art Museum director was instrumental in getting the him to participate in this exhibition. The installation involved dominating the sculpture hall and rearranging much of the collection I have some to expect in the East Building. 

Anselm Kiefer's Becoming the Sea will be in place until the end of January 2026. Between November and January I found myself acting as a frequent visitor and sometime impromptu docent. I talked to visitors about the exhibit and about the Max Beckmann collection, Picasso painting and highlights of Modern Art (including my favorite Mark Rothko). A special tour for Susan Signorino (before she moves to Omaha. Chris and Melissa Galloway planned a Wes Morgan art tour before coming into town from their place at the Lake of the Ozarks. I felt compelled to engage a variety of random people in conversations with people visiting the museum (including a guy who's step-dad new Max Beckmann - when Beckmann lived in Saint Louis. He showed me a short video on his phone of and appearance on PBS Channel 9 TV with a painting by Beckman).    

The Galloway visit included being treated to lunch at the Panorama restaurant. They allowed me to ponder highlights of the permanent collection (Rothko, Eqyptian Cat Mummy, Monet, Vsn Gogh, Picasso, Matisse and more).

The following is the kind of "art speak" the Saint Louis Art Museum uses to talk about the Kiefer exhibition. 

Since the late 1960s, Anselm Kiefer has made art exploring the depths of human history. For his first American retrospective in 20 years, he takes the river as a metaphor for the flux of life and the passage of time. Breathtaking new landscapes join iconic works to celebrate his nearly 60-year career.

Anselm Kiefer: Becoming the Sea draws significant loans from American museums and private collections. It features a massive, site-specific installation inspired by the Mississippi and Rhine Rivers that evokes the symbolic resonance of the waterways and links explorations of time, geography, and history. A monumental presentation, the exhibition is free for all visitors.

Born in 1945 in Donaueschingen, Germany, Anselm Kiefer is one of the most significant artists of the post–World War II era. His art is known for unflinching examinations of Germany’s complex historical legacy and broader themes of cultural memory and human existence. Working across diverse media, Kiefer creates large-scale works with raw, tactile surfaces made from unconventional materials, including lead, ash, clay, and dried flowers.

SLAM’s relationship with Kiefer began in 1983 with the exhibition Expressions: New Art from Germany, which introduced American audiences to Neo-Expressionism. Since then, the Museum has built one of the nation’s great collections of postwar German art.