Kiefer / Van Gogh

Anselm Kiefer, Starry Night

In October we visited the Kiefer / Van Gogh exhibit at the Royal Academy of Arts in London. Not previously familiar with more than Kiefer’s name, the work and its relationship to van Gogh was stunning. Entirely different, one can nevertheless feel how Kiefer has responded to van Gogh in every image.

“In 1963, aged 18, Anselm Kiefer received a travel bursary that allowed him to follow in Vincent van Gogh’s footsteps through the Netherlands Belgium, and France, first in Paris and ending up in Arles and the neighbouring village of Fourques in Provence. On his travels, which he termed an ‘initiation journey, Kiefer kept a daiary filled with notes and drawings.” ï¹£from the exhibition guide.

Bibliophiles

New York Public Library – Stephen A Schwarzman Building

This is one of the ceilings in the main public library on 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue. Remarkably for one who’s lived in NY for over 60 years, and whose birth was announced in the library’s employee newsletter, I’d never been inside before doing some research a week or so ago in the Division of Art, Prints and Photographs.

Opulence

Royal Pavilion, Brighton

The Royal Pavilion filled us with conflicting feelings: on the one hand it was gorgeous, ornate, beautiful, rococo, inspiring beauty; on the other its luxury and opulence were disgusting condemnations of the inequity in human societies.