Those who didn’t make time to visit Anselm Kiefer: Becoming the Sea (or who can’t stop thinking about their visit) have the opportunity to bask in Kiefer’s work a while longer. The Saint Louis Art Museum announced this morning that a portion of the landmark exhibition, which recently closed after 14 weeks, is staying put.
The Sculpture Hall display, which includes five three-story-paintings that fill several of the space’s side niches, are some of the most impressive pieces from the much-lauded collection. Featured in scores of social media posts and even a CBS Sunday Morning segment, the five paintings— “Missouri, Mississippi,” “Lumpeguin, Cigwe, Animiki,” “Am Rhein” (On the Rhine), “Anselm fuit hic” (Anselm Was Here), and “Für Gregory Corso” (For Gregory Corso)—will remain on display through Spring 2027.
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That means visitors will have more than a year to continue to examine the huge swaths of gold leaf and vibrant verdigris that have drawn so many to the monumental works. According to SLAM, around 150,000 people came through the museum during the exhibition’s run. The excellent turnout is one reason that Kiefer, who turns 81 this spring, and the museum have elected to extend the paintings’ stay in St. Louis.
When SLAM first approached Kiefer about hosting a major exhibition of his work, the artist “specifically remembered [the Sculpture Hall] space,” Melissa Venator, SLAM’s assistant curator of modern art, who assisted museum director Min Jung Kim in curating Becoming the Sea, told SLM this past summer. “It’s perhaps a cliché about Kiefer that he is obsessed with big things…he works on this incredible scale that’s hard for us to imagine and that no museum could contain, but [Sculpture Hall] gets pretty close. He was like, ‘I can work with this.’”
And Kiefer certainly followed through on that promise. Images of the installation have appeared, in addition to the CBS Sunday Morning segment, in Forbes, Observer, Hyperallergic, and more. With a year of opportunities to continue capturing Kiefer’s work ahead, we expect plenty more selfies and stories to come.
The Sculpture Hall portion of Anselm Kiefer: Becoming the Sea is free to access and will remain on view during regular hours at the Saint Louis Art Museum (1 Fine Arts) through Spring 2027.
