Georg Baselitz - an artist turns pictures on the head

Georg Baselitz most important German painters and sculptors for almost half a century , he may be the most famous contemporary German artist, and yet many Germans do not think of his name more than: "Isn't that with the pictures on the head?"

Yes that is correct. However, there is more to report on Baselitz: Georg Baselitz was born in 1938 in Deutschbaselitz, which is located in Oberlausitz. After graduating from high school in 1956, he studied painting at the University of Fine Arts in Berlin-Weißensee. His professors were the system-independent Lovis-Corinth student Herbert Behrens-Hangeler, but also “Comrade artists” (Axel Hecht in Arte 12/2008, pp. 74-79) Walter Womacka was also one of his professors.

Georg Baselitz, who works as a painter, graphic artist and sculptor, is considered a formative post -war artist . He rejected the abstraction and instead favored clear, recognizable topics. He deliberately used a coarse style of the representation and a more intense color palette to express immediate emotions. By dealing with the German Expressionism , Baselitz again focused on the human figure in the focus of painting.

Civil immature in the GDR and move to West Berlin

GDR showed quickly , and after two semesters he was thrown by the university because of "civic immature".

In 1956, Georg Baselitz subsequently took a significant step in his artistic career when he moved to the art academy in West Berlin. This decision not only marked a geographical move, but also a decisive turning point in its development as a painter. During his studies in the pulsating metropolis, which at the time was a center for contemporary art and cultural developments, Baselitz was able to further refine its skills and develop its own style.

In 1962 he finally completed his studies and thus entered a new phase of his artistic work. In order to appreciate his roots and the connection to his origin, he decided to accept the "Baselitz" . This step symbolized his deep connection with his place of birth.

Inspiration of abstract artists and art from the psychiatric context

In Berlin he had free access to all the knowledge of art. Wassily Kandinsky , Kasimir Malewitsch and Ernst Wilhelm Nay were particularly impressed by the young Baselitz , whose theories he was particularly concerned with.

He also traveled to Paris and Amsterdam, explored the work of Antonin Artaud and Jean Dubuffet and was fascinated by the Prinzhorn collection, the first anthology of artistic works from the psychiatric context.

In 1961 he felt ready for the beginning of his own work and happily accepted the artist name Georg Baselitz (which was based on his place of birth, as smart combiners already suspected at the beginning of the article).

Area about esotericism and prevailing fashions in the art world

The art of the capital, this "whole harmony soup, in which only everything bland" (Baselitz in Welt Online, 4.2.2012), was also not based on Baselitz 'taste. Baselitz found the art college occupied as esoteric, while Buddhism was the prevailing fashion; He and his colleague Eugen Schönebeck had to and wanted to attract attention in any other way.

So together they organized their first exhibition in Charlottenburger Schaperstraße, which did not reward sales and z. B. in the Berlin daily newspaper "Tage mirrors " with devastating criticism.

Against this petty -bourgeois art view, Baselitz and Schönebeck now wrote, also in 1961, the "1st Pandämonic Manifesto", in 1962 the "2nd Pandemonic Manifesto", critical writings, which with strong rhetorical protects will be pulled through the determined attitude against everything that is coherent and conventional, the Baselitz 'entire work will now go through.

In 1963, however, this attitude led to a mighty art scandal , when Baselitz, inspired by a newspaper article about the rebellious Irish poet Brendan, who had drunk and declated poems with open pants, painted three variants of his "big night" on everyone

strange guy who takes his dick. ” (Baselitz, Sun).

"The big night in the bucket" was taken up by the Berliners at his first solo exhibition in the Werner & Katz gallery. The picture was finally confiscated by the Berlin public prosecutor's office together with another Baselitz plant due to alleged immorality.

Villa Romana Prize of 1965 was even given the unrest for paying DM 400,-DM, Baselitz, the riots for his art could escape because (without his own application) He accepted the scholarship associated with the price and spent significant parts of the year in the Künstlerhaus in Florence.

In 1966 Baselitz left Berlin, and his outrage over the injustice he had received led to the development of his fracture images. For a while, all image motifs in this way were broken down into strips and reorganized.

The fracture pictures finally led him to turn his pictures upside down in 1969, a attitude with which he should become known and famous. As early as 1970, the Cologne gallery Franz Dahlem showed an exhibition from him, which showed head pictures without exception.

With these “upside down” , he was now famous, from around 1975 Baselitz images hung at all important exhibitions and museums, in Germany and abroad. The painter was no longer scarce on money either, in 1971 he moved to a villa in Forst on the Weinstrasse, in 1975 he bought Derneburg Castle in Lower Saxony (which he sold again in 2006, he lives on Ammersee in Upper Bavaria today).

His artistic development was not completed with the up-to-head images, there was a phase of so-called "Russian images" , in which Baselitz alienated the images of socialist realism known from the GDR youth, and a phase of the "remix", in which he made older images from a fresh perspective and sharper.

In 1965 Baselitz began to deal with the topic of "heroes" . The works "Heroes" (1965–66) - also known as "New Types" - are designed in thick, pastoser color and show figures placed in natural landscapes. These figures, which are characterized by the war, appear tired and fragmented, which causes a strong emotional reaction to the viewer because they conjure up the events of the recent past.

In the 1980s, the artist's work increasingly intensified because he included a variety of formal and art-historical allusions, including the works of Edvard Munch and Emil Nolde . At the same time, he began designing large sculptures from painted wood and first presented this work in 1980 at the Biennale di Venezia , where he presented a model for a sculpture (1979–80).

In addition, from 1977 to 1983, Baselitz taught in a professorship at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Karlsruhe and was appointed as a professor at the University of the Arts in Berlin from 1983 to 1988 and from 1992 to 2003.

Baselitz in the 21st century

The paintings that Baselitz created between 1990 and 2010 represented a further change in his artistic practice and showed a linear and abstract approach to the human figure. In the Remix series (2005–08) Baselitz picked up his earlier work again and graphically represents its former topics, so that their subtle meanings and technical innovations came to light.

In 2015, Baselitz 'Avignon painting (2014)-a series of eight high-towering nude dialists-were presented at the Biennale di Venezia. The following year, related self-portraits with spectral figures in the Gagosian gallery , West 21st Street, New York, were shown. In 2018, a comprehensive retrospective of Baselitz 'work took place in the Fondation Beyeler in Riehen/Basel, Switzerland, as well as in the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, DC.

Countless exhibitions and honors

Georg Baselitz had numerous important exhibitions in the course of his career. Some of the most important are summarized here:

• Biennale di Venezia (2007) Baselitz represented Germany at the 52nd Biennale of Venice, one of the most prestigious art events worldwide.
• Royal Academy of Arts, London (2007-2008) This retrospective exhibition offered a comprehensive overview of Baselitz 'works and marked an important milestone in its international recognition.
• Museum of Modern Art, New York (1995) This exhibition in one of the most famous museums in the world Consolidated Baselitz 'Ruf as an important artist of modern art.
• Guggenheim Museum Bilbao (1996) Exhibition in the renowned Guggenheim Museum, which is known for its collection of modern and contemporary art.
• Kunstmuseum Bonn (2013) A thematic exhibition that dealt intensively with the artist's early works and opened up new perspectives on his artistic development.
• Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich (2014-2015) A comprehensive retrospective that presented works from various creative phases and emphasized Baselitz 'influence on modern art.
• Fondation Beyeler, Riehen (2018) an important exhibition with works that illuminated the influence of European and American art on Baselitz.

He was able to accept countless honors , including the Goslarer Kaiserring, the French Order of the Arts and the literature, an honorary professorship at the Royal Academy of Arts London, the Praemium Imperial Award and (honorable) memberships regarding the "Nobel Prize of the Arts" His works are represented in around 30 public collections in Germany and in various European collections.

You can find a complete list of his exhibitions and awards here .

Even at that time, minded with a stronger tendency to irony found it as characteristic of the established art business and the morale of the 1960s that the comparatively harmless (because clearly artistic) representation of two naked men could trigger such a reaction and that a clearly meant ironically exaggerated exaggeration in Baselitz, which later brought him to turn him to the head. And they find it consistent when this art, which was upside down, was the Baselitz “money and power and fame in the art world”.

In -depth information about the artist:

• Works of art to be sold and selected exhibitions on Georg Baselitz
• Contribution from the Mirrors S "Baselitz painting brings 2.7 million euros"