Year: 1971
Technique: Lithograph
Size: 42 x 63.5 cm
Edition: 125/300
Signed
Georg Baselitz
Germany, 1938
Georg Baselitz (Hans-Georg Kern) is a painter, sculptor, graphic artist and draftsman. In East Berlin he studied art, but was expelled because of 'socio-political immaturity'. He continued his painting studies at an academy in West Berlin and settled permanently in the West in 1958. In 1961 (the year the Berlin Wall was built) he adopted the pseudonym Baselitz, which refers to his birthplace Deutschbaselitz near Dresden, which belonged to the GDR from 1949.
His work is considered neo-expressionism; more specifically on the intersection of figuration and abstraction. The paintings contain clearly recognizable figurative motifs, although printed by reversal to the second plan, in which the human figure occupies the central place. Baselitz is known for his 'upside down' paintings. He was one of the first to turn against the dominant minimalist abstract art of the 1960s. He says he was influenced by Edvard Munch and had a lot of influence on De Nieuwe Wilden himself. According to Baselitz, a painting provides no information that the viewer must (or can) take in and it does not give a picture of reality. The work itself is reality. Its value lies in looking at it. Baselitz paints expressively figuratively, but not realistically. He works on large formats, alternately wild and subdued, rough and refined.
