Anselm Kiefer in Hoxton Square

Last week in the East End of London, just north of the financial district, Anselm Kiefer's first exhibition in the city since 1997 went up.

Thirty of his most recent paintings are housed in a 25–foot–tall pavilion of corrugated steel designed by Kiefer (above, inside the pavilion with some of his works) and created just for this show.

The new installation is entitled "Anselm Kiefer for Khlebnikov."

The pavilion and all 30 paintings inside have been sold to a single unidentified American collector for $5 million.

The building and paintings will move to the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, Connecticut by next spring.

Following its American opening in Ridgefield, the show may tour the U.S.

Carol Vogel wrote about the exhibition in a July 1 New York Times story, which follows.

A London Pavilion, Connecticut-Bound

There's a curious sight in the center of Hoxton Square in the East End, just north of the financial district here: a 25-foot-tall pavilion of corrugated steel.

Erected this week by White Cube, the contemporary-art gallery just across the square, it is designed by the German artist Anselm Kiefer and houses 30 of his recent paintings.

The installation, on view through July 30, is Mr. Kiefer's first exhibition in London in eight years.

An exact re-creation of one of the artist's studios in Barjac, in Provence, where he lives and works, it is called "Anselm Kiefer for Khlebnikov."

The title refers to Velimir Khlebnikov, the visionary artist, poet and thinker who died in 1922 and whose analytical systems, based on arcane mathematical calculations, deal with the illusion of logic in history.

"I discovered Khlebnikov in 1973 when his works were first published in Germany," Mr. Kiefer, 60, said at the pavilion's opening.

"He invented an absurd system of history."

The paintings depict historic sea battles, incorporating actual model ships into highly textured surfaces.

Inside the White Cube Gallery are three more paintings related to those in the pavilion, as well as a sculpture fashioned from concrete that resembles a shipwreck.

The pavilion and the 30 paintings inside have been sold as a single installation to an American collector, identified only as a supporter of the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, Conn., where it will go on view.

"Ideally we would like to see it up by the spring," said Harry Philbrick, director of the Aldrich, who was also at Hoxton Square on Wednesday for the opening.

Mr. Philbrick said he was investigating the best way to create the pavilion and to transport the paintings safely to Connecticut.

After that, he said, he is hoping the pavilion and its paintings will go on tour to American institutions.

"It's like a collision between painting and sculpture," said Jay Jopling, White Cube's owner, who is devoting his space to Mr. Kiefer this summer.

When the pavilion and the works at White Cube (a detail of one is shown below)



come down, others by the artist will be on view inside the gallery.

From Aug. 3 to 27, there will be a full-scale, cast-concrete staircase embedded in a canvas and a floor installation incorporating hundreds of glass shards.