Anselm Kiefer: Where Have All the Flowers Gone? — a blockbuster indeed — is the new exhibition on view at Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum and, a hundred or so feet away, the Stedelijk, the country’s premiere museum of modern and contemporary art and design. The single exhibition flows coherently from museum to museum, itself a feat. Kiefer isn’t for the faint of heart. His work is wild, erudite, and bizarre, more to be revered than loved. If you can get to Amsterdam, see it, but it takes work.
With 200 paintings by Van Gogh, 300 drawings, and work by artists connected to him, the Van Gogh Museum is a trove for Van Gogh research and for scholarship on his place among living artists. It’s also the Netherlands’ most visited museum. The Stedelijk is hip and cool, in a good way, having an edgy collection with stars from Mondrian to young European artists. This is the first time the two heavy-hitter museums have collaborated on an exhibition, and Kiefer is best described as a cosmic force.
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