We round up the reviews for the Royal Academy’s latest exhibition…
The Guardian: **** “Despite the intimations of modern disaster that this exhibition brings out, Van Gogh painted before 1914, before Auschwitz. He painted a more innocent nature. The snow enveloping the fields, in a wonderful wintry scene he painted in 1890, may look like ash if you squint enough, but it’s still just snow. Kiefer can’t see nature with the same fresh joy because no one can any more. His metallic attempts at golden ecstasy reflect our time, our sorrow.”
The i Paper: *** “For the most part, late-stage Kiefer is far too bombastic to engage Van Gogh with subtlety, and in an age when Van Gogh’s images are as familiar as merchandise as they are paintings, subtlety is surely exactly what is needed.”
The Standard: **** “It’s a noisy opening, full of shock and awe, and the only presence of Van Gogh is his little painting Piles of French Novels (1887). Kiefer connected with the great artist for his literary leanings too. The quietness of the painting draws you inexorably in, a quiet amid the storm.”
The Independent: *** “Plenty of artists have dreamed they could somehow be Van Gogh – only Kiefer has had the bottle to follow through.”
The Telegraph: **** “In a bruising showdown at the Royal Academy, Anselm Kiefer, the alpha-male of modern art, makes his Dutch hero look positively weedy.”
To book tickets visit: https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibition/kiefer-van-gogh