Anselm Kiefer in Amsterdam review The German titan takes on Van Gogh . (This link opens in a new tab).

It’s the year of Anselm Kiefer. The German artist turns 80 on March 8 and, after the opening of the Ashmolean in Oxford’s exhibition of his early works (a useful primer, if you’re not familiar), comes this collaboration between the Van Gogh (VGM) and the Stedelijk museums in Amsterdam, to present one massive Kiefer exhibition of 25 works — they tend to be huge — across both locations (they are adjacent). A version of the VGM part of the exhibition will travel to the Royal Academy in London in June.

At the Stedelijk, those in the collection are displayed together for the first time, alongside two new commissions and three of his fascinating films; at the VGM, the influence of Van Gogh on Kiefer is the focus, with some of the Dutch artist’s pertinent works shown alongside. In 1963 Kiefer won a travel scholarship and followed the route taken by Van Gogh from the Netherlands to Belgium and France. A number of the young artist’s drawings from this time are on display, remarkably reminiscent of his predecessor’s.

Gosh, this two-venue effort makes for a beautiful show. Unfairly, due perhaps to the monumental, macho scale at which he generally works, I sometimes get a bit eyeroll-y about Kiefer. And then I see the work again, and it touches and humbles with its depth and thoughtfulness, its expansiveness; its engagement with history, literature, philosophy and humanity.

At the VGM, Kiefer’s celebrated thick scumble of paint seems to echo the brushstrokes in Van Gogh’s late work, the little curls and dashes that made up those radiating skies and The Starry Night (Kiefer’s 2019 homage to that 1889 work is unmistakable even before you see that they share a title).