Background
Georg Baselitz was born on January 23, 1938 in Kamenz, Germany. He is a son of Johann Kern, an elementary school teacher, and Liselotte Block.
1984 - 1992
Academy of Arts, Germany
1999
Royal Academy of Arts, United Kingdom
2009
Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts, Germany
Academy of Arts, Germany
Royal Academy of Arts, United Kingdom
Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts, Germany
State Academy of Fine Arts Karlsruhe
Georg Baselitz was born on January 23, 1938 in Kamenz, Germany. He is a son of Johann Kern, an elementary school teacher, and Liselotte Block.
Initially, Georg was educated at the local school in Kamenz. In 1956, the painter enrolled at the Hochschule für Bildende und Angewandte Kunst in East Berlin. There, he studied under professors Walter Womacka and Herbert Behrens-Hangler, and befriended Peter Graf and Ralf Winkler (later known as A. R. Penck). After two semesters, he was expelled for "sociopolitical immaturity".
In 1957, Georg enrolled at the Academy of Visual Arts in Charlottenburg, West Berlin, graduating in 1962.
In 1957, Georg Baselitz created his first original works in his own distinct style. During this time, he also made a series of imaginary portraits, including Onkel Bernard (Uncle Bernard) and the Rayski Head. The series focused on German identity in the post World War II era and was inspired by war soldiers, stationed near Baselitz's home.
During the 1960s, the painter became increasingly interested in anamorphosis, the distorted or monstrous representation of an image, as exemplified in the proportions and facial features of his figures.
In 1963, he held his first solo exhibition at Galerie Werner & Katz in West Berlin, during which many of his grotesque paintings, such as "Der Nackte Mann" (Naked Man) and "Die grobe Nacht im Eimer" (Big Night Down the Drain) were deemed too controversial and were subsequently seized on the grounds of obscenity by the State Attorney.
In 1975, the painter settled down in Derneburg. The following year, Baselitz established a studio in Florence, which he used until 1981. In 1978, he was appointed a professor of painting at the State Academy of Fine Arts Karlsruhe.
Baselitz reinvented his work in 1979, when he began creating monumental wooden sculptures. Similar to his paintings, the sculptures were crude, forceful and unrefined. In 1980, he took part in Venice Biennale, where he represented Germany. There, Georg also exhibited his first sculpture, "Model for a Sculpture", a crudely carved wooden figure, which sparked controversy due to the similarity of its out-raised arm gesture to a Nazi salute.
Since the 1990s, he has continued to produce drawings, woodcuts, paintings and sculptures and has also worked as a set designer for operas, such as "Punch and Judy" at the Dutch Opera in Amsterdam. In 1995, his first major retrospective in the United States was held at the Guggenheim in New York. In 2002, a retrospective of Baselitz's work was shown in Art Gallery of Yapi Kredi Bank in Istanbul.
Since 2006, he has produced so-called remix paintings in which, with an unprecedented lightness of touch, he re-examines the iconography of his own historical works.
Since 2013, Baselitz and his wife live in Salzburg. In 2015, both obtained Austrian citizenship. The same year, Georg Baselitz participated in the exhibition All The World's Futures at the Arsenale during the 56th Venice Biennale. These days, Baselitz is still an active, yet controversial artist and highly critical of German politics.
Georg Baselitz became famous for his inverted or upside-down paintings, that shift emphasis from subject to the properties of painting itself, creating not just a painted canvas, but a nearly sculptural object.
The painter attained numerous awards, including Villa Romana Prize in 1964, Order of Arts and Letters in 1987, Praemium Imperiale in 2004, Austrian Decoration for Science and Art in 2005 and others.
Today, Baseltiz’s works are included in the collections of the Museo Guggenheim Bilbao, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Tate Gallery in London, the Berlinsche Galerie and others.
Rebel
Divided Hero
Woodmen
Large Head
The Wood On Its Head
Where is the Yellow Milkjug, Mrs Bird
Adieu
Heads
Untitled
Waldarbeiter
Anselm hatte eine Marienerscheinung, er sah die Madonna in beige blauem Kleid, hier trägt sie nur eine blaue Schürze
Dog-Split
Auftritt am Sandtreich II - bei + 30 C (Remix)
Head and Bottle
Mittags
The Herder
Big Night down the Drain
Zweitens, bitte schön
From the Front
Nude with Three Arms
The Crowning with Thorns
Greenberg grins
Female Nude on a Kitchen Chair
Folkdance Melancholia
Peitschenfrau
Big Night Down the Drain
Jumping Figure
Alte Elisabeth
Avignon dada strip
P.D. Zeichnung
Quotations:
"I don't like things that can be reproduced. Wood isn't important in itself but rather in the fact that objects made in it are unique, simple, unpretentious."
"A painter doesn't need any talent. In fact, it's better not to have it."
"I paint German artists whom I admire. I paint their pictures, their work as painters, and their portraits too. But oddly enough, each of these portraits ends up as a picture of a woman with blonde hair. I myself have never been able to work out why this happens."
"Unlike the expressionists, I have never been interested in renewing the world through the vehicle of art."
Georg married Elke Kretzschmar in 1962. The couple gave birth to two sons — Daniel Blau and Anton Kern.
