ST. LOUIS, Mo. (First Alert 4) – “They’re three stories tall,” was the first thing that she said about these unique paintings temporarily on display at the St. Louis Art Museum. “These aren’t just paintings he had in the studio. They’re paintings that he made for this presentation – because this exhibition wouldn’t take place in any other city.”
For Assistant Curator Melissa Venator – who has been helping the artist put the show together for two years – this is an incredible sight. Some pieces weigh over a ton. Some were shipped by boat from France. It’s a mammoth job – with mammoth pieces on display, said Venator SLAM’s Assistant Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Curator of Modern Art.
The exhibition is called “Anselm Kiefer: Becoming the Sea” – containing statues, prints, paintings, photographs and landscapes that literally stand as tall as buildings.
“The show will occupy approximately 30,000 square feet of gallery space—making it SLAM’s largest single exhibition in decades—and will be presented with free admission for all visitors,” the SLAM website says.
It also has visiting pieces from other museums and collections – showing Keifer’s work from the 1960s to the modern day.
And Kiefer isn’t a local artist, or even an American. He’s an internationally renowned artist – with fond memories of St. Louis – whose pieces hang in the MoMA, the center of a documentary of Wim Wenders and is an internationally recognized multi-media artist.
It’s also the first U.S. exhibition that Kiefer has had in over two decades. According to SLAM staff who have worked with Kiefer, he was excited about using the space of the art museum – and motivated by his powerful memories of a trip he took to the banks of the Mississippi decades ago.
SLAM’s Barbara B. Taylor Director Min Jung Kim, has said that since the ‘90s, Kiefer’s work has evolved as it keeps its ability to go to the “most profound depths of human history, from the psychological and visceral to the political.”
“Working across diverse media including painting, sculpture and installation, Kiefer creates monumental works characterized by their raw, tactile surfaces and incorporation of unconventional materials such as lead, ash, clay and dried flowers,” SLAM’s website says of the artist.
He’s had a long love affair with the St. Louis Art Museum and St. Louis itself. In 1983, a traveling show on Germany art brought Kiefer’s work to the U.S.A. Four years later, SLAM acquired its first of Kiefer’s work, “Brennstäbe” – or Fuel Rods in English. Later, he visited the museum himself to oversee the installation of the second Kiefer work to join SLAM — “Bruch der Gefäße” (Breaking of the Vessels).
Other works have joined the Kiefer collection at SLAM in the years between then and now.
“The ongoing acquisition of these works by Kiefer are part of the museum’s long-term collecting strategy: SLAM has one of the largest and most diverse collections of 20th-century German art in the U.S,” the SLAM website states, including the extensive collection of German Max Beckmann’s art, beginning shortly after WWII.
Kiefer was born in Germany during the Second World War, grew up in the Cold War’s divided Germany and studied law. Now 80, his artistic career stretches decades.
Much of his work is recognized for its look into the complex history and legacy of Germany, as well as humanity and cultural memories.
“A master of material and scale, Kiefer’s work is distinguished by its ambitious scope and intellectual depth, drawing inspiration from sources as varied as poetry, literature, history, mysticism and mythology,” SLAM said of his work.
They go on to say that the “massive’ canvases and installation — which regularly require their own specially built areas — are multi-layered, weaving personal and larger memories about loss, the persistence of history and redemption.
Avery Martinez covers water, ag & the environment for First Alert 4. He is also a Report for America corps member, as well as a member of the Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk. His coverage ranges from neglected water infrastructure, to NWS resignations, TikTok farmers to buffalo health as well as immigration challenges and Midwestern politics.
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