The Saint Louis Art Museum has opened “Anselm Kiefer: Becoming the Sea,” an exhibition featuring 40 works by the German artist from the 1970s to the present, including over 20 pieces made in the last five years and five monumental site-specific paintings. The show highlights Kiefer's 1991 journey up the Mississippi River during a visit to St. Louis, a formative trip that inspired new works such as the 30-by-27-foot painting *Missouri, Mississippi* (2024), which depicts the artist encountering the Melvin Price Lock and Dam in Alton, Illinois. The exhibition also includes pieces like *Die Milchstraße* (1985-87) and two works dedicated to beat poet Gregory Corso, whose lines about eternal life gave the show its title.
This exhibition matters because it connects Kiefer's signature themes of destruction, mythology, and postwar landscapes to a specific American locale—the Mississippi River—offering a fresh perspective on his practice. The show demonstrates how water, a recurring motif in Kiefer's work, bridges his German heritage with his experiences in the United States, potentially revealing a more optimistic turn in his intensely historical imagery. By presenting five new site-specific paintings alongside earlier works, the exhibition provides a comprehensive view of Kiefer's evolution and his ongoing engagement with scale, materiality, and narrative.