Georg Baselitz

Overview

I had always loved expressionist painting, like every European. In fact I admired it all the more because these were precisely the paintings despised by my father's generation.

Georg Baselitz is a painter, sculptor and graphic artist recognized as a pioneer of German Neo-Expressionist painting, known for his distinct paintings of upside down subjects.

Biography

I hang my work upside down to emphasize surface.

Born as Hans-Georg Kern in Deutschbaselitz, Upper Lusatia, Germany in 1938, Georg Baselitz is best known for his figurative, expressive paintings and sculptures. In 1969 he began painting his subjects upside down in an effort to overcome the representational, content-driven character of his earlier work, exploring what it means to be a German artist in the postwar era, and stress the artifice of painting. Drawing from a myriad of influences, including art of Soviet era, the Mannerist period and African sculptures, he developed his own, distinct artistic language.

His work is characterized by bold colors, forceful brushstrokes, and the incorporation of folkloric or archetypal subject matter. “I begin with an idea, but as I work, the picture takes over. Then there is the struggle between the idea I preconceived and the picture that fights for its own life.”

Works