ART CULTURE ART : PRECIS

AMSTERDAM : An artist wonders if we'll ever learn. As his sprawling new show opens, Anselm Kiefer fears history is repeating itself.

Anselm Kiefer's imposing new installation surrounds the grand staircase of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam.

The piece envelops the walls, its surfaces painted in colors of oxidised copper and gold leaf. Army uniforms stiffened with splattered paint hang at eye level. Dried flower petals tumble down the canvases onto the floor.

A self-portrait of Kiefer as a young man lies at the base of one panel, with a tree growing out of his chest.

This installation is the title work of Kiefer's monumental solo exhibition, which comprises about 25 paintings, 13 drawings and three films by Kiefer, from 1973 to the present, in addition to eight van Gogh works, '' Sag mir wo die Blumen sind, or '' Where Have All the Flowers Gone?,'' sprawls across two of Amsterdam's largest modern art museums, the Van Gogh Museum and the Stedelijk.

The World Students Society thanks Nina Siegal.