Actually, I arrange everything that I do according to the principle of disharmony, after the imbalance, after the destruction.
Georg Baselitz in conversation with Heinz Peter Schwerfel
1 Taken from: Georg Baselitz. Collected writings and interviews, ed. by Detlev Gretenkort, Munich 2011, p. 181.
Georg Baselitz is one of the most important innovators in the field of contemporary painting since 1960. Baselitz, who was born as Georg Kern in Deutschbaselitz (Upper Lusatia) in 1938 and left the GDR in the direction of West Berlin after complaining about art studies at the age of 20, had his own artistic way discovered early. With an artifice - he began to rotate his pictures by 180 degrees in 1969, thus turning it upside down - he created a brand with a strong recognition value.
At an early stage, Baselitz was tempted to separate things from all conventions. From the obligatory informal color flow of his youth, he weeds his own painterly path to objectivity. The early paintings are gruff and revolt against everything: authority, fashions, prudishness, other art movements or sovereignty symbols, preferably eagles. At his first solo exhibition in 1963 in the Berlin gallery Werner & Katz, a scandal is created and the works "Die ganze Nacht im Eimer” (The whole night in the bucket) and "Der nackte Mann” (The naked man) are confiscated by the State Prosecutor because of immorality. As a "Junger Wilder" he creates a series of paintings in the years 1965/66 with the titles "Die Helden" (Heroes) or "Neue Typen" (New Dudes). This series went unnoticed for a long time. Today it is part of art history. In 1969 Baselitz turned everything upside down and gained fame. At the beginning of the 1970s, not only powerful paintings, painted with bare hands images, but also spectacular series of etchings, woodcuts, wood engravings, in which technology changes from motif to motif. Since 1980, edged and colored sculptures have also been among his much acclaimed works. Since 2002, Baselitz has been repainting his most important works (Remix Series) and has been putting them to the test.
Baselitz received numerous awards, including in 1965 the Villa Romana Award, Florence; in 1986, the Imperial Ring of the City of Goslar; 1987, the French award of a Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and 2002 that of a commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres; 2001 he receives the Julio González Prize of the City of Valencia; in 2005, the Austrian Decoration for science and art. On the occasion of his 80th birthday, he was honored with exhibitions at home and abroad.
International and national public collections own his works: the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden; State Museums of Berlin; Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main; Museum Ludwig, Cologne; Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim Museum in New York and many more.
