Anselm Kiefer: Becoming the Ocean Solo exhibition at Saint Louis Art Museum

Since the late 1960s, Anselm Kiefer has made art exploring the depths of human history. For his first American retrospective in 20 years, he takes the river as a metaphor for the flux of life and the passage of time. Breathtaking new landscapes join iconic works to celebrate his nearly 60-year career.

Anselm Kiefer: Becoming the Ocean draws significant loans from American museums and private collections. It features a monumental, site-specific installation inspired by the Mississippi and Rhine rivers that evokes the symbolic resonance of the waterways and links explorations of time, geography, and history. A sprawling presentation across 30,000 square feet of galleries, the exhibition is presented with free admission for all visitors.

Born in 1945 in Donaueschingen, Germany, Anselm Kiefer is one of the most significant artists of the post–World War II era. His art is known for unflinching examinations of Germany’s complex historical legacy and broader themes of cultural memory and human existence. Working across diverse media, Kiefer creates large-scale works with raw, tactile surfaces made from unconventional materials, including lead, ash, clay, and dried flowers.

SLAM’s relationship with Kiefer began in 1983 with the exhibition Expressions: New Art from Germany, which introduced American audiences to Neo-Expressionism. Since then, the Museum has built one of the nation’s great collections of postwar German art.