Name: Art Exhibition Anselm Kiefer – Van Gogh Journey
Location: Van Gogh House

Van Gogh House

At the beginning of his career, Anselm Kiefer travelled with a scholarship from the zis-Stiftung as an 18-year-old in the footsteps of Van Gogh to Zundert. He arrived in August 1963 and was kindly received by the Mutsters family, who provided him with shelter on a farm on Moersebaan. Kiefer stayed here for a number of days and sketched portraits of the farmer and his wife. He described his stay in detail in his travel journal.‘Now finally the farmers have agreed to sit for me to model for portrait sketches. Surely they wanted to postpone that until Sunday, to be properly dressed. But that's very bad. Here, on Sundays they have city clothing, and I would like to paint real farmers (potato eaters).’ [Anselm Kiefer, Zundert 1963]Kiefer's fascination with Van Gogh has never faded. He set up his studio in the south of France, not far from where Vincent painted his most famous works. On his estate in Barjac, he cultivated gigantic Japanese sunflowers, which he photographed and incorporated into paintings, installations, and art books.In the lead-up to his eightieth birthday, Kiefer presents himself for the first time alongside Van Gogh in a major exhibition at the Van Gogh Museum, which collaborates with the Stedelijk Museum for the exhibition ‘Sag mir wo die Blumen sind’. The Van GoghHuis joins in with a presentation on Kiefer's Van Gogh Journey, curated by Maria Würth.In addition to the travel journal, video fragments, and his correspondence with the Mutsters family, Anselm Kiefer provides a number of original drawings. These are portraits from Zundert and the south of France. Furthermore, he has selected two paintings of Sonnenblumen for this exhibition. Additionally, the museum presents some loans from private collections. In the film room, the documentary Anselm (2023) by Wim Wenders is shown.

This exhibition shows how 18-year-old Anselm Kiefer travelled with a scholarship from the zis-Stiftung and followed in the footsteps of Vincent van Gogh to Zundert. This journey marked the beginning of his career and had a lasting influence on his later work.