Anselm Kiefer, one of the world's most prolific living artists, is now the subject of a retrospective in St. Louis. He talks with Mark Whitaker about how rivers cutting through America's Midwest, and a Beat Generation poet, inspired his three-story-tall abstract canvases, in a show entitled "Becoming the Sea."

St. Louis

German artist Anselm Kiefer is the subject of a major retrospective at the St. Louis Art Museum, where his monumental paintings inspired by the Mississippi and Rhine rivers are on display. Kiefer, known for exploring themes of memory, history, and mortality, draws on both personal and historical experiences, including his upbringing in post-war Germany.

The exhibition highlights Kiefer's use of unconventional materials and his ongoing engagement with difficult subjects such as the Holocaust and the cycle of life. Despite international acclaim and works in museums worldwide, Kiefer, now 80, expresses disappointment rather than pride in his achievements, emphasizing a continual search for artistic growth.

The art of Anselm Kiefer: "Becoming the Sea"

Look at this tree. This is a fantastic tree, no? Even on a casual walk, German artist Anselm Kiefer is always searching for inspiration. All these trees going so high up, look. And here in St. Louis, Missouri, it's an American river, the Mississippi, that's fired his imagination. This river goes through America, and so with this conscious, I have an inner overview of America, of the continent, of the world. Kiefer has turned those reflections into these paintings. Each three stories tall, they're now holding court at the St. Louis Art Museum. Home to an Anselm Kiefer retrospective. Dozens of Kiefer works are on display, but it's these monumental canvases that are the showstoppers. How long did it take you to do the painting? Yeah. All together, it was, I think, one year. Uh-huh. He asked me how long it takes to do a painting. That's what everybody wants to know from the genius. The paintings depict the Mississippi and Europe's Rhine River. Waterways brimming with history, symbolizing the cycle of life. I heard that there were various names that were talked about. Why did you decide on Becoming the Sea? I knew the poems of the Pete generation, of Gregor Corso, and I remember the one poem, Spirit is like a river who is not afraid to becoming the sea. So what is the connection between rivers and the sea? You know, a river is something special. The river dissolves itself in the sea. Right. And it's not afraid of this. Uh-huh. I'm not afraid of my death, you know? Mortality is a common theme for Kiefer. Born in 1945 in Germany, Anselm Kiefer grew up in the ruins of World War II and the aftermath of the Holocaust. It's a chapter many Germans tried to forget. You know, after the war, there was not so much knowledge about what happened. The Germans, they put it underneath the carpet. Under the rug. But nobody spoke about it. Kiefer spent his career breaking through that silence, like when, as a young art student, he photographed himself giving the Nazi salute, not as an endorsement, but as a reckoning. What is the role of art and the artist in helping people not to forget? If the artist is in the world, like I am in the world, as I look what happens, then automatically you have a role. Over the decades, Kiefer continued to explore themes of memory and loss, mostly with abstract landscapes and materials. Good? Okay. As Kiefer showed Sunday morning in 2018, here at his studio outside of Paris, melted lead and fire are normal sightings. So is a bit of chemistry creating unexpected colors. See, you can take it off. This is electrolyzed. It's not a color, it's a chemical product. Today, Anselm Kiefer is one of the most prolific living artists at the peak of his career, with work selling for millions and in museums around the world. It would be a proud moment for most, but Anselm Kiefer has always had his own way of seeing things. So at 80, what are you most proud of in terms of the work you've done? You ask strange questions. I'm not proud, I'm disappointed. I'm really disappointed, because every morning I go in the studio and say, oh, what I have done yesterday, and then I continue, I continue. Proud? No, no, I don't know this word for me, proud.

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