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11/01/2025

Today’s blog

Lynn Murphy Mark

An artful day

I admit it. I’m not a person who regularly visits museums. There are only a handful of places where I would be happy to make the rounds. I’ve been to museums in Europe and seen some amazing works of art – but that was years ago. My most recent visit to a repository of art in another country happened some years ago in Amsterdam, when we visited the most amazing Van Gogh museum. We spent several hours there standing in front of iconic paintings done by this troubled and talented man. The time flew by and to my surprise, I was sorry when the visit was over.

When my  mom was living in Tulsa, Oklahoma, I was a regular visitor to a smallish museum called the Gilcrease. I made it a point to go there as often as I could so I could admire the art of the West and Southwest. There was an artist named Thomas Moran, whose panoramic paintings were compelling, drawing me into the wild places he painted. There was a big collection of Frederick Remington sculptures. He managed to capture the souls of men and horses in communion with each other and I would admire the details he managed to create in the small bronze action figures. 

Santa Fe, a small city with big museums, houses the Georgia O’Keefe center. The artist produced the most glorious paintings of the inner parts of flowers. Her landscapes make the high desert of Northern New Mexico come to life. She had a favorite “mountain” she painted over and over until she declared that God had decided that it was hers for the keeping. She and I are kindred souls when it comes to being in love with this part of our country. 

I am a little ashamed to say that I don’t frequent the gem of an art museum that we have right here in  Saint Louis. Its acronym is SLAM, and I spent all of yesterday afternoon being slammed by a new exhibit. I only know about it because my friend, Cassondra, made a special trip from New York City to attend the exhibit of her favorite artist of all time. She planned this trip much earlier this year, when it seemed like October 31 was a long way away.

I was not prepared to be bowled over or even impressed, knowing nothing about an artist named Anselm Kiefer. But Cassondra was my guest. I picked her up at the airport, took her for breakfast, and we made our way to Forest Park. It took me a while to drive along the winding streets of the park, not knowing exactly where I was going. Fortunately the signs are helpful and before too long we found a convenient parking place and headed for the entrance to the SLAM. 

We actually came in the entrance that was intended to be the last part of the tour of Kiefer’s work. It was held in the sculpture hall. I did know, thanks to Mr. Google, that the museum had to empty the sculptures from the hall to make room for a massive exhibit. 

The words, “the paintings stretch 30 feet from bottom to top” did not prepare me for the scale of such works. Somewhere along the way I met up with a docent who told me just how the massive works of art were brought through the doors of the museum and mounted on walls by small cranes. They had to take the doors off of an entrance so that the panels could be carefully brought in. The weight of this man’s art is incredible. Panels range from a few hundred pounds to over 5,500 pounds, or 2.5 metric tons.

In we walked and I actually gasped at the size and complexity of each painting. OMG. OMG. These are not simply flat paint spread on a canvas. He uses so much material to create thick textures that it takes a long time to review each piece and look for the images made with paint, straw, ash, clay, lead, wood, shellac and gold leaf. I’ve never seen anything like it and I am so grateful to Cassondra for introducing me to this German man who visited Saint Louis in the 1990’s and was captivated by the confluence of the mighty Missouri and Mississippi rivers. The biggest paintings expressed his admiration for the waters. 

I was the beneficiary of my friend’s knowledge about Anselm Kiefer. I also spoke with some of the docents who were, to a person, extremely enthused about the meaning of this exhibit. Anselm Kiefer is in his 80’s now, but did come to Saint Louis to supervise part of the building of the exhibit. 

I think I’ll be back for another voyage through this man’s imagination.