'They are both visionaries': Lord Clancarty reviews 'Kiefer / Van Gogh'
Anselm Kiefer, 2014 (pictured): 'Walther von der Vogelweide: Under the Lime Tree on the Heather.' | Photo © Royal Academy of Arts, London / David Parry. © Anselm Kiefer
3 min read
With some choice paintings on display, discover the similarities between the work of these two visionary artists, otherwise so different in temperament
The first thing to say about the Kiefer / Van Gogh pairing at the Royal Academy of Arts is that this is no curatorial conceit. Anselm Kiefer’s interest in Vincent van Gogh has been a lifelong obsession, starting with a journey made in 1963 as a teenager following in van Gogh’s footsteps across Europe, with the production of a journal and drawings made in Amsterdam, Arles and Auvers.
'Hortus Conclusus': Anselm Kiefer, 2007-14 | Image courtesy of the artist and White Cube. Photo © Royal Academy of Arts, London / David Parry. © Anselm Kiefer
The drawings of landscapes and local people are made not so much in van Gogh’s style but rather as though he was trying to inhabit his hero’s persona. It is a technique Kiefer has revisited: in an early work, he provocatively adopted the Hitler salute in photographs in various European locations as though he was trying to understand what it took to be a Nazi.
The current exhibition was developed by the Royal Academy in collaboration with the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam who have loaned some choice paintings, among them L’Arlesienne and Piles of French Novels. While Kiefer is most well-known for his interrogation of German history, the works in this exhibition – mainly from the last 15 years – are chosen because they have an affinity with van Gogh, even if they are not all of a piece. Indeed, a painting about a poem by the medieval poet Walther von der Vogelweide is just one from a series of works on the same theme.
Sometimes there is an obvious overlap in subject matter – sunflowers appear repeatedly. Nevermore is directly inspired by van Gogh’s famous Wheatfield with Crows (not in the exhibition) and the largest painting here is Kiefer’s own version of Starry Night where the whorls in the sky are made of straw – one of the many forms of materials incorporated into his work.
Kiefer’s interest in van Gogh has been a lifelong obsession
Kiefer’s paintings have become even larger over the years, and with their vastly different temperaments, the two artists don’t sit well in the same space. But does that matter? The more you look, the more you see the similarities between the two artists.
Kiefer may ramp up the intensity much more than van Gogh does, but they are both visionaries, while Kiefer’s consistent message is one of anti-provincialism, anti-authoritarianism.
Alongside the informative catalogue, there is a fascinating essay by the novelist John Banville in the RA Magazine, which quotes Kiefer as saying he does not believe van Gogh had any innate skill or facility but nevertheless persevered to make remarkable art. This is something to bear in mind if in this country ‘excellence’ and ‘talent’ are to be the measures by which we (ever more parsimoniously) hand out grants and indeed visas to artists.
Kiefer has done a great deal with the grant he was able to obtain in his teens to study van Gogh when most likely the only thing he would have had to show at the time would have been his own enthusiasm.
Earl of Clancarty is a Crossbench peer
Kiefer / Van Gogh
Curated by: Julien Domercq & Natasha Fyffe
Venue: Royal Academy of Arts, Burlington Gardens, London W1 – until 26 October 2025
