Anselm Kiefer: Sag mir wo die Blumen sind

Anselm Kiefer, one of the world’s leading artists, is the subject of the first major exhibition to ever be jointly presented by the Van Gogh Museum and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam.

The exhibition brings together twenty-five works by Anselm Kiefer, including a major new work “Sag mir wo die Blumen sind”, together with paintings, installations, film, and works on paper, across the two museums. The presentation at the Van Gogh Museum demonstrates the enduring influence of Vincent van Gogh on Kiefer’s work. In 1963, Kiefer won a travel scholarship and chose to follow the route taken by Van Gogh, from the Netherlands to Belgium and France. Van Gogh and his work have remained a vital source of inspiration for him. The exhibition presents seven new works in the Van Gogh Museum, alongside previously unseen paintings and thirteen early drawings by Kiefer. Paintings, such as Van Gogh’s “Wheatfield With Crows” (1890) are juxtaposed in the same space as Kiefer’s monumental works of the same theme.

The presentation at the Stedelijk focuses on Kiefer’s close ties to the Netherlands, particularly the artist’s connection with the museum. The Stedelijk acquired “Innenraum” (1981) and “Märkischer Sand” (1982) early in the artist’s career and staged an acclaimed solo exhibition of his work in 1986. This exhibition is not only an unprecedented opportunity to see all the works in the Stedelijk’s collection together, but also a chance to see Kiefer’s more recent, never shown paintings. Anselm Kiefer also created two new installations at the Stedelijk: the large-scale title work “Sag mir wo die Blumen sind”, that covers the entire circuit of the historic staircase, and “Steigend, steigend, sinke nieder”, in which photographs from the artists’ archive dangle from the ceiling, like lead reels of film.