Anselm Kiefer’s Alpine Homage to Giovanni Segantini at Lia Rumma Naples

Anselm Kiefer (b. 1945, Donaueschingen) presents a new body of work at Lia Rumma gallery in Naples, dedicated to the 19th-century Divisionist painter Giovanni Segantini (1858–1899). The exhibition, titled 'Voglio vedere le mie montagne für Giovanni Segantini,' brings together seven large canvases created over decades, starting in the 1980s. Kiefer reinterprets Segantini’s Divisionist technique and alpine landscapes through a contemporary lens, using mixed media including acrylic, enamel, oxidation, and gold leaf. The show’s title quotes Segantini’s dying words—'I want to see my mountains'—referring to his native Trentino, which he never returned to after moving to the Swiss canton of Graubünden. Kiefer’s works explore myth, literature, and epic themes, linking Segantini’s longing for home to the Homeric hero Odysseus. The gallery’s large spaces, arranged with the artist’s input, emphasize natural light to echo the mountain landscapes depicted. The exhibition also draws a parallel between Segantini’s unrealized monumental project for the 1900 Paris Exposition (a rotating canvas panorama of alpine flora and fauna) and Kiefer’s 'I Sette Palazzi Celesti' at HangarBicocca in Milan.