A major exhibition by Anselm Kiefer — considered one of the greatest living artists — will open in Amsterdam in March 2025, in a history-making collaboration between the Van Gogh Museum and the Stedelijk Museum.
Marking Kiefer’s 80th birthday, the two next-door-neighbour museums will come together to host a joint exhibition for the very first time in their history. With twenty-five works spread across the two venues, museum bosses are promising a “truly remarkable” show.
Paintings, installations, film and works on paper make up the exhibition, titled Anselm Kiefer — Sag mir wo die Blumen sind, which will run in the Dutch capital until June. (The title is lifted from one of the new Kiefer paintings in the show in case you were wondering, which itself takes its name from the anti-war song Where have all the flowers gone? popularised by German-born American actress and singer Marlene Dietrich.)
Kiefer at Van Gogh Museum
The half of the show presented inside the Van Gogh Museum will demonstrate the enduring influence of Vincent van Gogh on Kiefer’s work. In 1963, Kiefer won a travel scholarship and he chose to follow the route taken by the Dutch master, from the Netherlands to Belgium and France.
Van Gogh and his work have remained a vital source of inspiration for Kiefer, and seven key works by the painter will be shown alongside previously unseen Anselm Kiefer paintings and thirteen early drawings.
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Kiefer at Stedelijk Museum
Just meters away, the Stedelijk Museum’s half of the exhibition focuses on Kiefer’s close ties to the Netherlands, particularly the artist’s connection with the museum itself which has been pivotal to his career.
The Stedelijk acquired Kiefer’s Innenraum (1981) and Märkischer Sand (1982) early in the artist’s practice and staged an acclaimed solo exhibition of his work in 1986.
So curators have taken this opportunity for an unprecedented uniting of all of Kiefer’s works in the Stedelijk’s collection, but have also taken the chance to display them alongside his more recent paintings and two new major installations.
The undoubted highlight will be the art exhibition’s titular work — Sag mir wo die Blumen sind — a 24-metre-long painted frieze, which the artist is currently completing to fill the space around the historic staircase of the museum. Early photos look like it will be a wonder to behold for the scale alone.
The second installation — Steigend, steigend, sinke nieder — is made from photographs and lead, an important material that recurs throughout Kiefer’s work, alluding to the heavy weight of human history.
Who is Anselm Kiefer?
Anselm Kiefer was born in the closing months of World War II in Germany, and as a boy he played in the debris of post-war infrastructure. In the late 1960s, Kiefer was one of the first German artists to address the country’s fraught history in monumental, acerbic works for which he sustained intense criticism in his homeland. But it was in the Netherlands where his work first gained recognition.
Later, Kiefer would be hailed for breaking the silence surrounding Germany’s past. His work reflects on themes such as history, mythology, philosophy, literature, alchemy, and landscape.
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Commenting on the upcoming exhibition, Director, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Rein Wolfs, said: “It will be truly remarkable to see these installations amid several of [Kiefer’s] iconic works from the 1980s. In this way, Kiefer looks back at the past and towards the future.”
Emilie Gordenker, Director, Van Gogh Museum, added that: “Anselm Kiefer has been engaged with Van Gogh’s work from his early years. Sometimes the inspiration is almost literal, as in the use of sunflowers and the composition of his landscapes.”
Gordenker also said that the first time-showing of new Kiefer work “shows how Van Gogh continues to make his mark on his work today.”
While it’s an absolute must-see Netherlands exhibition in 2025, it’s also going to be one of the highlights of London’s museum scene this year too, as a truncated version — focussing on the Van Gogh portion — will open at the Royal Academy in June.
Tickets to the Amsterdam show at both venues are available to pre-book now, priced €32.50 for adults. Although under-18s get in free. Pre-booking is recommended, as the show’s short run and its star name mean it’s likely to be hugely popular.
Anselm Kiefer — Sag mir wo die Blumen sind will open at the Van Gogh Museum and the Stedelijk Museum on 07 March and will run until 09 June 2025
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