This month, the Saint Louis Art Museum (SLAM) will debut “Becoming the Sea,” its most ambitious solo exhibition in years and certainly one of the largest. Opening to the public on Oct. 20, the show features five monumental paintings by German artist Anselm Kiefer, each over 31 feet tall and designed specifically for SLAM’s central Sculpture Hall.

But size isn’t the only thing that makes this show unique. The artist is one of the most important living Jewish-affiliated voices reckoning with the legacy of postwar Germany. And the museum that’s presenting his latest work is also one of the country’s most significant collectors of 20th-century German art, a collection shaped in part by St. Louis-based Jewish collector Morton D. May.

This is a show with deep local and Jewish roots. And it’s free for everyone.

Why “Becoming the Sea” is unlike any other exhibition?

The five new works are sculptural paintings made from lead, straw, ash, rebar, clay, shellac and even charred book covers. They’ll be installed in the vaulted alcoves of SLAM’s grandest space and it’s no exaggeration to say they will completely transform the museum’s central architecture.

Melissa Venator, SLAM’s assistant curator of modern art and an expert in German art, said the works don’t just fill the space – they consume it.

“These paintings aren’t just on the wall,” she said. “They erupt out of it. They become part of the space. They demand that you move around them.”

Photos, she said, can’t capture the scale or the emotion. “That’s especially true because Kiefer’s art deals in spiritual questions: How do we rebuild after destruction? What does it mean to carry memory through generations? Can ruins hold wisdom?”

“Kiefer’s themes are heavy—Holocaust memory, ancient myth, the cycles of decay and renewal,” she said. “But his materials speak, too. Lead is heavy but malleable. Ash is what’s left after destruction. Straw evokes resurrection and fire.”

From the Mississippi to mythology. Kiefer’s vision, rooted in St. Louis

The show’s title, “Becoming the Sea,” refers to a recurring motif in Kiefer’s work. Water as transformation, water as forgetting, water as return. One of the most striking pieces in the exhibition is based on a 1991 helicopter trip Kiefer took over the Mississippi River.

“He wanted to see the river from above,” said Venator. “That bird’s-eye view, where time and geography collapse, became part of his visual language. You’ll see the Mississippi referenced directly in this exhibition.”

It’s not a stretch to say this show couldn’t have happened anywhere else.

Kiefer’s relationship with SLAM began in 1983, when the museum acquired its first work by the artist. That collecting effort built on a broader vision laid by collector May, who donated the world’s largest collection of Max Beckmann’s paintings to SLAM. Venator says this moment, hosting Kiefer in this space at this scale, is a culmination.

“This show ties together decades of collecting and community-building,” she said. “It brings St. Louis into an international conversation, and it brings Kiefer’s vision right to our front door.”

An immersive (and free) art experience for our whole community

There’s no ticket required for “Becoming the Sea.” And because the paintings are so physically overwhelming and so dense with symbolism, we recommend visiting more than once, especially if you follow along with our coverage.

Over the coming weeks and months, the Jewish Light will explore this exhibition piece by piece: the river, the rituals, the materials, the memory. We’ll share what Venator shared with us and give readers a reason to come back again and again, both to the gallery and to our stories.

Follow our series on “Becoming the Sea”

This exhibition is too big, too meaningful and too deeply connected to our community to be captured in just one story. That’s why we’re inviting you to experience it with us — one piece at a time.

And the best part? The show is completely free. So if something we share makes you see a painting differently, you can go back multiple times. We’re creating this series so you can walk into the museum with new eyes and a deeper sense of what’s at stake in this once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Here’s what’s coming next:

• Oct. 15 – “The Collector and the River”: How St. Louis helped shape this global artist and how the Mississippi became part of his visual language.
• Oct. 19 – “Visitors’ Guide to Kiefer”: A practical and poetic guide to help you navigate the emotional and symbolic terrain of the exhibition.
• Nov. 6 – “Always Modern”: A look at SLAM’s second German-focused exhibition this fall and what it means for the city’s relationship to modern art.
• Throughout November and December – Features on memory, ritual, destruction and rebirth in Kiefer’s work, including a spotlight on “Brennstäbe (Fuel Rods)”

This isn’t just an art show. It’s a spiritual encounter, a moment of memory and reckoning, a chance to feel history rise off the walls.

We believe this is one of the most important exhibitions ever to open in our city — and we want our readers to see why. Join us for the journey.