ST. LOUIS, Mo. (First Alert 4) – \u201cThey\u2019re three stories tall,\u201d was the first thing that she said about these unique paintings temporarily on display at the St. Louis Art Museum. \u201cThese aren\u2019t just paintings he had in the studio. They\u2019re paintings that he made for this presentation \u2013 because this exhibition wouldn\u2019t take place in any other city.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Assistant Curator Melissa Venator \u2013 who has been helping the artist put the show together for two years \u2013 this is an incredible sight. Some pieces weigh over a ton. Some were shipped by boat from France. It\u2019s a mammoth job \u2013 with mammoth pieces on display, said Venator SLAM\u2019s Assistant Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Curator of Modern Art. <\/p>\n
The exhibition is called \u201cAnselm Kiefer: Becoming the Sea<\/a>\u201d \u2013 containing statues, prints, paintings, photographs and landscapes that literally stand as tall as buildings.<\/p>\n \u201cThe show will occupy approximately 30,000 square feet of gallery space\u2014making it SLAM\u2019s largest single exhibition in decades\u2014and will be presented with free admission for all visitors,\u201d the SLAM website says.<\/p>\n It also has visiting pieces from other museums and collections \u2013 showing Keifer\u2019s work from the 1960s to the modern day.<\/p>\n And Kiefer<\/a> isn\u2019t a local artist, or even an American. He\u2019s an internationally renowned artist \u2013 with fond memories of St. Louis – whose pieces hang in the MoMA<\/a>, the center of a documentary of Wim Wenders<\/a> and is an internationally recognized multi-media artist<\/a>.<\/p>\n It\u2019s 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 \u2013 and motivated by his powerful memories of a trip he took to the banks of the Mississippi decades ago.<\/p>\n SLAM\u2019s Barbara B. Taylor Director Min Jung Kim, has said that since the \u201890s, Kiefer\u2019s work has evolved as it keeps its ability to go to the \u201cmost profound depths of human history, from the psychological and visceral to the political.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cWorking 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,\u201d SLAM\u2019s website says of the artist.<\/p>\n He\u2019s 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\u2019s work to the U.S.A. Four years later, SLAM acquired its first of Kiefer\u2019s work, \u201cBrennst\u00e4be\u201d \u2013 or Fuel Rods<\/a> in English. Later, he visited the museum himself to oversee the installation of the second Kiefer work to join SLAM — \u201cBruch der Gef\u00e4\u00dfe\u201d (Breaking of the Vessels).<\/a><\/p>\n Other works have joined the Kiefer collection at SLAM in the years between then and now.<\/p>\n \u201cThe ongoing acquisition of these works by Kiefer are part of the museum\u2019s long-term collecting strategy: SLAM has one of the largest and most diverse collections of 20th-century German art in the U.S,\u201d the SLAM website states, including the extensive collection of German Max Beckmann\u2019s art, beginning shortly after WWII.<\/p>\n Kiefer was born in Germany during the Second World War, grew up in the Cold War\u2019s divided Germany and studied law. Now 80, his artistic career stretches decades.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Much of his work is recognized for its look into the complex history and legacy of Germany, as well as humanity and cultural memories.<\/p>\n \u201cA master of material and scale, Kiefer\u2019s work is distinguished by its ambitious scope and intellectual depth, drawing inspiration from sources as varied as poetry, literature, history, mysticism and mythology,\u201d SLAM said of his work.<\/p>\n They go on to say that the \u201cmassive\u2019 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.<\/p>\n Avery Martinez covers water, ag & the environment for First Alert 4. He is also a Report for America corps member<\/a>, as well as a member of the Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk<\/a>. His coverage ranges from neglected water infrastructure, to NWS resignations, TikTok farmers to buffalo health as well as immigration challenges and Midwestern politics.<\/p>\n Copyright 2025 KMOV. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. LOUIS, Mo. 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