German Artist Anselm Kiefer Engages In Visceral Dialogue With Van Gogh In Blockbuster Exhibition Sprawling Two Amsterdam Museums
Original article written for Forbes
German artist Anselm Kiefer (born 1945) named his work De sterrennacht (The Starry Night) (2019) after Vincent van Gogh’s painting executed from the Dutch master’s east-facing window view during his yearlong stay at the asylum (psychiatric hospital) of Saint-Paul-de-Mausole near Saint-Rémy-de-Provence.
“What you see here is Kiefer working on a very grand scale, using his entire arsenal of materials. The green is created by electrolysis, he’s using a lot of gold right now, and it is really about how he's getting out the movement in the Starry Night in an almost overwhelming way,” Emilie Gordenker, director of the Van Gogh Museum, said during a tour of the exhibition following the previews of TEFAF-Maastricht. “These works are also clearly looking to Van Gogh.”
Van Gogh continues to enthrall the global art world. M.S. Rau of New Orleans sold the rare Still Life with Two Sacks and a Bottle by van Gogh (asking price of $4.75 million) to a private collector at the 38th edition of TEFAF Maastricht, which is widely regarded as the world’s preeminent fair for fine museum quality art, antiques, design and jewelry.
