Anselm Kiefer All That Is the Case

After three years of construction and renovation work, Kunsthalle Würth in Schwäbisch Hall, Germany, is reopening its doors. The grand opening ceremony took place on Tuesday, 13 October 2026, and was attended by Germany’s Federal President, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, and State Premier of Baden-Württemberg, Cem Özdemir. To mark the Kunsthalle Würth’s 25th anniversary, the museum will present the major monographic exhibition “Anselm Kiefer – All That Is the Case” from 16 October 2026. The exhibition brings together more than 70 works by Anselm Kiefer from the Würth Collection and 21 works on loans from the artist’s studio. The Anselm Kiefer Pavilion is open to the public at Museum Würth 2 in Künzelsau.

In 1996, entrepreneur and collector Prof. Dr. h. c. mult. Reinhold Würth, Honorary Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Würth Group, acquired The Angel (1976–1978), the first work by Anselm Kiefer to enter his collection. Over the decades, a close relationship developed between the collector and the artist, whose work brings together history, myth, religion, literature, and philosophy in compelling and fascinating ways. Today, Anselm Kiefer, who was born in Donaueschingen, Germany, in 1945, is one of the defining artists represented in the Würth Collection. The collection holds predominantly large-scale works spanning every period of his career. 

Nevertheless, the exhibition “Anselm Kiefer – All That Is the Case” is not intended as a retrospective. Instead, it focuses on central, recurring themes in Kiefer’s work and the diversity of his materials. The exhibition ranges from early works from the 1960s and 1970s, including Occupations and Heroic Symbols, through philosophical explorations of the microcosm and macrocosm to visual worlds rooted in Kabbalah, Romanticism, literature, and a critique of political ideologies. Also on display are Kiefer’s installations made from steel shelving units or stacks of lead books, such as Laokoon from 2008. These works bring into sharp focus the connections between knowledge, memory, and history, as well as the interplay between intellectual reflection and material transformation. The large-format painting Anselm fuit hic (2017–2024) is one of the most recent acquisitions in the Würth Collection. As a tribute to the Rhine and the Black Forest, the landscapes of his childhood, it combines personal memory with a striking depiction of these landscapes.

The works from the Würth Collection are complemented by loans from the artist, including works on paper and photographs. The selection of photographs assembled by Anselm Kiefer highlights a medium that is essential to his artistic process and that he calls his “holy assistant.”