To accompany the excellent Anselm Kiefer exhibition Sag mir wo die Blumen sind (the German translation of the 1955 Pete Seeger folk/protest song Where Have All the Flowers Gone? which took on a whole new dimension when performed by Marlene Dietrich ), the Van Gogh and Stedelijk Museums in Amsterdam have produced a beautiful 200 page catalogue.
The first thing that strikes you is its format. The majority of Kiefer’s work is landscape (format, not subject matter) so it is fitting that the book should take this into consideration – it is very irritating in art books when a picture is printed over two pages so that one gets a big crease down the middle, or if the picture is squeezed onto a single page. Admittedly, there is a double fold-out in the catalogue but that is so that the main body of the title work can be seen properly.
Although the book is a catalogue for the exhibition which takes place in both the Van Gogh and adjacent Stedelijk Museums, it does stand on its own two feet and is therefore an excellent introduction, giving a broad insight into the oeuvre of Herr Kiefer who some consider to be the greatest living artist.
The first part of the exhibition (in the Van Gogh Museum) is essentially an exercise in contrast and compare. What is really nice, in the catalogue, is to have the twenty or so early Kiefer drawings more or less same-size so that you can really look at them at your leisure – not something that is possible in a crowded gallery.
The paintings, of course, are a different matter. Kiefer does not do small. The average size of his paintings must be in the region of four meters wide so that the catalogue, being in landscape format, shows them at their best. All are beautifully photographed and printed.
But it’s not just reproductions of the artworks. There is a lot of fascinating text as well. Famous British art historian and television personality Simon Schama presents an objective appraisal of Kiefer in which he claims that the German artist’s work, because it is about something, is the “enemy of the contemporary art world and its splashy carnival vanities”.
But most interesting and revealing is the essay by Kiefer himself in which he describes his relationship with Van Gogh, an artist he describes as one without talent whose success was achieved by hard work and determination. He dismisses the Dutch painter’s early work, claiming that if he had died in 1887 he would have remained totally unknown. That may all sound a bit negative but, on the contrary, Kiefer has nothing but praise and admiration for Van Gogh, an artist who influences and informs his work even now. On the face of it the exhibition’s pairing of the two artists may seem strange, chalk and cheese, but after seeing it and reading Kiefer’s essay you will completely understand.
The book also has a substantial reference section starting with a chronology of Kiefer’s life from his birth on 8th March 1945 in a small town in southern Germany up to the opening of this exhibition. There is a full, detailed list of all the works on show as well as a bibliography and other related information. Compared to the price of other books available on Anselm Kiefer this one, at €34.95 represents good value. Michael Hasted 13th March 2025
Where Have All the Flowers Gone?/ Sag mir wo die Blumen sind by Anselm Kiefer, Simon Schama and Antje von Graevenitz.
In Dutch or English
Published by Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
Tijdsbeeld Publishing, Ghent
Hard cover 200pp 228 x 284mm €34.95
You can read our review of the exhibition of here.
