Work by Anselm Kiefer from the exhibition at La Pedrera

The Secret Life of Plants. Anselm Kiefer in the Grothe Collection

Now showing2 October 2026 – 24 January 2027€16

Barcelona's first major Anselm Kiefer show: around forty paintings, sculptures, installations, photographs and artist's books, mostly from Hans Grothe's collection, on memory, matter and knowledge.

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On now All of October 2026

In one of Kiefer's glass vitrines, burned books sit beside dried plants and tree roots, with stones, lead, cement, wire and fabric packed around them like a three-dimensional archive. These Opus Magnum cases are on show in Spain for the first time.

Around forty works fill the main floor of the former Milà family home, mostly from Hans Grothe's collection, between Gaudí's stone columns and under his decorated ceilings. Paintings, books and cases work as one show rather than in sections, and the title cycle is dedicated to the 17th-century scholar Robert Fludd. It is Kiefer's first solo show in Barcelona, and the curator, Walter Smerling, says Kiefer supplies sixty per cent of the understanding. Dried stems in glass cases will look familiar if you have ever come back from August away to find your balcony basil in the same state.

Tickets are €16, €12 concession and free under 12. It is open 10:00 to 19:30, last entry 19:00, and closed on 25 December.

Editor's pick

Burned books, dried plants and lead fill the Opus Magnum vitrines, shown in Spain for the first time. About forty works from Hans Grothe's collection make this Kiefer's first Barcelona solo show, with a cycle for Robert Fludd.

Look for

The Opus Magnum vitrines
Monumental glass cases holding burned books, stones, dried plants and tree roots, lead, cement, wire and fabric, shown in Spain for the first time.
The Fludd cycle
The title series of paintings is dedicated to Robert Fludd, the 17th-century English scholar, and links tiny plant forms to cosmic and historical forces.
The dried thistles
Kiefer's recent work uses yellow stems and withered thistles in ochre tones as images of mortality and transience.
Gaudí's main floor
The works hang in the former Milà family residence, among its stone columns and decorated ceilings.