The Royal Academy’s Kiefer-Van Gogh show offers a soaring spectacle

Kiefer/Van Gogh (28 June-26 October) at London’s Royal Academy of Arts (RA) presents works by the German artist which can be modest in quantity however monumental in measurement. The exhibition’s finale, The Starry Night time (2019), is 8.4m vast. It solely simply matches on the gallery wall, with round 5cm to spare at every finish. Though it does divide into three sections, transporting the work from Kiefer’s studio on the outskirts of Paris and putting in it proved a logistical problem.

The RA exhibition is a collaboration with the Van Gogh Museum, the place it was initially proven (7 March-9 June) and seen by 340,000 guests. The Amsterdam presentation had greater than thrice the house, so the London present is smaller and consists of some totally different works.

In London the lead curator is the Royal Academy’s Julien Domercq. Till final yr he was on the Nationwide Gallery, the place he contributed to the exhibition catalogue for Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers (14 November 2024-19 January 2025). Domercq describes Van Gogh as Kiefer’s “first creative love”; there’s a “assembly of minds” between the 2 artists, he says.

Kiefer’s love of Van Gogh started in 1963 when, as an 18-year-old pupil, he went on a pilgrimage to the websites the place the Dutchman had lived and labored, sketching his personal impressions of locations and folks. Six of those early drawings are included within the RA present.

The primary presentation on the RA includes seven large multimedia “work” (made with oil and acrylic, gold leaf, straw, clay, burnt wooden, wire and sunflower seeds)—and a single sculpture (Danaë, 2019). They’re all impressed by Van Gogh and had been accomplished over the previous decade.

The 5.7m-wide Nevermore (2014) depicts golden wheat, surmounted by a flock of ravens (which seem much more menacing than Van Gogh’s birds in his Wheatfield with Crows, July 1890). The title refers to an 1845 poem by Edgar Allen Poe, during which a grieving man is pushed mad by a raven repeating the phrase “Nevermore”. Kiefer’s work additionally has a connection to Van Gogh’s companion Paul Gauguin, who in 1897 himself made a portray referred to as Nevermore, which centres round a unadorned Tahitian lady mendacity on a mattress and is within the Courtauld Gallery assortment.

Kiefer’s large works are proven within the bigger first and third rooms of the RA’s gallery suite, whereas the center room is dominated by Van Gogh, creating a really totally different environment. The Van Goghs comprise each drawings and work spanning most of his durations. Domercq intentionally chosen items which aren’t instantly illustrative of Kiefer, as an alternative going for these the place the connections are a “little looser”. With 11 works, it represents what is basically a mini Van Gogh exhibition.

There are seven Van Gogh work, 5 of that are on mortgage from the Van Gogh Museum, together with a model of L’Arlésienne (April 1890) from a non-public assortment and Poppy Area (June 1890) from Kunstmuseum The Hague. There are additionally 4 not often displayed Van Gogh drawings.

The best of the work, and a deal with for Londoners, is undoubtedly Area with Irises close to Arles (Could 1888). In his homage works Kiefer has not included irises or the skyline of Arles, however the hyperlink is along with his articulation of house in his massive mixed-media works.

Tribute at White Dice

In the meantime White Dice is displaying Anselm Kiefer (till 16 August) at their Mason’s Yard gallery, simply three minutes’ stroll away from the RA. Their promoting exhibition—which is free admission—has 12 works by Kiefer, all however three of that are large-scale, multimedia items.

These embody one other “ravens” work, a fair wider one (7.6m) than Nevermore at RA. A golden sky is full of the birds, which hover above rows of crops disappearing in the direction of the horizon.

The bottom flooring of the White Dice show has 4 works impressed by Van Gogh’s famed motif, the sunflower. These embody Candy golden clime (for William Blake), whose title comes from considered one of Blake’s 1794 poems, “Ah Solar-flower”. The poet writes a few “weary” sunflower which desperately seeks the solar, monitoring its every day motion throughout the sky—and reaching towards heaven.

Van Gogh’s Arles sunflowers are exuberant, lively. Kiefer’s in Candy golden clime are way more sober, starting to wilt in a darkish area, however set beneath a stretch of golden sky. For those who go to the RA present, do be sure that to go to White Dice too.

Martin Bailey is a number one Van Gogh specialist and particular correspondent for The Artwork Newspaper. He has curated exhibitions on the Barbican Artwork Gallery, Compton Verney/Nationwide Gallery of Scotland and Tate Britain.

Martin has written various bestselling books on Van Gogh’s years in France: The Sunflowers Are Mine: The Story of Van Gogh’s Masterpiece (Frances Lincoln 2013, UK and US), Studio of the South: Van Gogh in Provence (Frances Lincoln 2016, UK and US), Starry Night time: Van Gogh on the Asylum (White Lion Publishing 2018, UK and US) and Van Gogh’s Finale: Auvers and the Artist’s Rise to Fame (Frances Lincoln 2021, UK and US). The Sunflowers are Mine (2024, UK and US) and Van Gogh’s Finale (2024, UK and US) are additionally now obtainable in a extra compact paperback format.

His different current books embody Residing with Vincent van Gogh: The Houses & Landscapes that formed the Artist (White Lion Publishing 2019, UK and US), which offers an summary of the artist’s life. The Illustrated Provence Letters of Van Gogh has been reissued (Batsford 2021, UK and US). My Good friend Van Gogh/Emile Bernard offers the primary English translation of Bernard’s writings on Van Gogh (David Zwirner Books 2023, UKand US).

To contact Martin Bailey, please e-mail vangogh@theartnewspaper.com

Please observe that he doesn’t undertake authentications.

Discover all of Martin’s adventures with Van Gogh right here