1957–1969 '', 1962/63,
Museum Ludwig, Cologne At the turn of 1959 to 1960, Baselitz began to produce his first original works in a distinct style of his own, among them the
Rayski-Head (
Rayski-Kopf) series and the painting
G. Head (
G. Kopf). In 1963, Baselitz's first solo exhibition in
West Berlin, at
Galerie Werner & Katz, caused a public scandal. Two of the pictures,
The Big Night Down The Drain (
Die große Nacht im Eimer) (1962/63) and
The Naked Man (
Der Nackte Mann) (1962), were seized two days after the opening of the show by the public prosecutor on the ground of their lewd and obscene content, after a friend of the gallerist
Michael Werner had likely already reported the seizure via the German News Agency in the local newspaper
B.Z. – a self-fulfilling prophecy and intentional scandal. The ensuing court case did not end until October 1965. Baselitz spent the spring of 1964 at Schloss Wolfsburg and produced his first etchings in the printing shop there, which were exhibited later that year.
Printmaking, a medium which he describes as having "symbolic power which has nothing to do with a painting", has since become an intrinsic part of his artistic repertoire. The next year, he won a six-month scholarship to study at the
Villa Romana in
Florence. While there, he studied
mannerist graphics and produced the
Animal Piece (
Tierstück) pictures. In general, Baselitz' greatest inspiration stemed from writers and artists such as
Antonin Artaud,
Samuel Beckett,
Edvard Munch,
Jean Dubuffet,
Willem de Kooning, and
Joseph Beuys, as well as from the
expressionist artist association
Die Brücke.
Series of Heroes and Fractures After returning from Florence to West Berlin, Baselitz created the series of
Heroes (
Helden, also known as
Neue Typen), between 1965 and 1966, which includes, among others, the large-format composition
The Great Friends (
Die großen Freunde, Museum Ludwig,
Cologne). These figures represent a
metaphorical image of a man who, having neither nationality nor an affiliation to a place, throws the illusory and megalomaniacal ideals of the
Third Reich and East Germany overboard with his desolate, broken, ragged appearance (for example,
Rebel, held by the
Tate Modern). Baselitz's
Helden typically appear alone in a barren landscape with naked arms and legs, and hands opened in a summoning gesture. At times they bear attributes associated with the biography of the artist, who referred to his own childhood in the countryside and identified himself with all of them. Through early 1969, he produced further large-format pictures, such as
Woodsmen (
Waldarbeiter) as part of a group of pictures known as
Fracture Pictures (
Frakturbilder).
Inverted paintings On the basis of his
Fractures, Baselitz used a painting by Louis-Ferdinand von Rayski,
Wermsdorf Woods (Wermsdorfer Wald), ca 1859, from his childhood at his elementary-school as a model, in order to paint his first picture with an inverted motif:
The Wood on Its Head (Der Wald auf dem Kopf) (1969). By inverting his paintings, the artist is able to attempt to emphasize the organisation of colours and form and confront the viewer with the picture's surface rather than the personal content of the image. In this sense, the paintings are empty and not subject to interpretation. Instead, one can only look at them. In 2020, the Baselitz family donated six of Baselitz's inverted paintings to the
Metropolitan Museum of Art, including his first painting of his wife Elke. In 2021, the Museum displayed them in
Georg Baselitz: Pivotal Turn.
1970–1975 , 1971) During the 1970s, Baselitz regularly exhibited at
Munich's
Galerie Heiner Friedrich. Most of the works he produced during this time were landscapes themed as pictures-within-a-picture. In 1970, at the
Kunstmuseum Basel, Dieter Koepplin staged the first retrospective of drawings and graphic works by Baselitz. At the Galeriehaus in Cologne's Lindenstraße, Franz Dahlem put on the first exhibition of pictures with upside-down motifs. In 1971, the Baselitz family once again moved, relocating to
Forst an der Weinstraße. He used the old village school as studio and started painting pictures featuring bird motifs. He exhibited several times in the next few years around Germany and also participated in the 1972
documenta 5 in
Kassel, where again his work would generate harsh criticism. This same year he began using a fingerpainting technique. He painted landscapes until 1975, often based on motifs he would find in publications such as the ″Mitteilungen des Landesvereins Sächsischer Heimatschutz e. V.″. In 1975, the family moved to Derneburg, near
Hildesheim. Baselitz visited New York for the first time and worked there for two weeks. He also visited Brazil, participating in the 13th
Biennale in
São Paulo.
1976–1980 In 1976, Baselitz rented a studio in Florence, which he used until 1981. In 1977, he began working on large-format
linocuts. He began teaching at the
Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste in
Karlsruhe, where he was appointed professor in 1978. From 1978 until 1980, he worked on
diptychs using the
tempera painting technique (combinations of motifs), multipart pictures (series of motifs), and large-format individual works such as
The Gleaner (
Die Ährenleserin),
Rubble Woman (
Trümmerfrau),
Eagle (
Adler), and Boy Reading (
Der lesende Knabe). His works became more abstract, with scriptural elements predominating. In 1980, he showed a sculpture for the first time at the
Venice Biennale.
1981–1989 In 1981, Baselitz set up an additional studio in
Castiglion Fiorentino, near
Arezzo, which he used until 1987. His work was exhibited in New York for the first time in 1981. By 1982, he began devoting more time to sculpture, in addition to several exhibitions. In 1983, he began using
Christian motifs in much of his artwork, and completed the major composition
Dinner in Dresden (
Nachtessen in Dresden). In the same year, he took up a new professorship at the Hochschule der Künste Berlin. In 1986, in recognition of Baselitz's achievements, he was awarded the
Goslarer Kaiserring by the city of
Goslar. Through the 1980s, Baselitz's work was exhibited frequently in Germany. In 1989, the title
Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres was conferred upon Baselitz by
French Minister of Culture Jack Lang.
1990–2009 The first major exhibition of Baselitz's works in East Germany was staged at the Nationalgalerie im Alten Museum in Berlin in 1990. In 1992, he resigned from the Akademie der Künste in Berlin. In 1993, he designed the set for
Harrison Birtwistle's opera
Punch and Judy, staged under the direction of
Pierre Audi at the Dutch Opera in Amsterdam. He also took part in the International Pavilion at the Venice Biennale with the
Male Torso (
Männlicher Torso) sculpture, accompanied by oversized drawings. In 1994, Baselitz designed a stamp for the
French postal service. He also produced his first ground gold picture that year. In 1995, the first major retrospective of Baselitz's work in the U.S. was staged at the
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City. This retrospective was also exhibited in Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles. Throughout the 1990s, his work was exhibited frequently throughout Europe. In 2002, a retrospective of Baselitz's work was shown in Art Gallery of Yapı Kredi Bank in
Istanbul. During this time, Baselitz lived and worked near
Hildesheim (Schloß Derneburg), from 2006 on near
Munich, and in
Imperia in Italy. His work was exhibited in London, at the
Royal Academy of Arts in late 2007, and in the
White Cube gallery in 2009.
2010–2013 From 21 November 2009, to 14 March 2010, the Museum Frieder Burda and
Baden-Baden's
Staatliche Kunsthalle exhibited a comprehensive survey of the artist, featuring approximately 140 works.
Baselitz. A Retrospective was presented at the two neighbouring museums, with the Museum Frieder Burda displaying
50 years of painting and the Staatliche Kunsthalle
30 years of sculpture. In a 2013 interview, Baselitz was quoted as saying, "women don't paint very well. It's a fact. There are, of course, exceptions." Citing the comparative lack of commercial success of work by women painters in the most expensive markets as proof, he stated, "Women simply don't pass the test. (...) The market test, the value test". Baselitz's statements elicited rebuttals from art critics like Sarah Thornton, author of
Seven Days in the Art World, who countered, "[t]he market gets it wrong all the time. To see the market as a mark of quality is going down a delusional path. I'm shocked Baselitz does. His work doesn't go for so much." The record then for a painting by Baselitz was £3.2 million, while the record for a painting by
Yayoi Kusama, a female artist, was £3.8 million.
2014–2026 Baselitz was an active, yet controversial artist and highly critical of German politics. Over the years, Baselitz worked on a series of quiet portraits of both him and his wife, Elke, painted with dark washes of blue and black, somber tones that point to a mediation on mortality and ageing. For Baselitz's 80th birthday on 23 January 2018, several retrospectives were held in his honour; for instance at
Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich,
Fondation Beyeler and
Kunstmuseum in
Basel, as well as in the U.S. at the
Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C. With over 100 works highlighting six decades, the Hirshhorn's exhibition was the first major U.S. retrospective of work by Baselitz in more than 20 years.
Devotion, an exhibition of paintings and works on paper by Baselitz inspired by self-portraits of artists he admired and or was influenced by, was exhibited at
Gagosian Gallery in New York in early 2019. The same year, Alan Cristea Gallery also published a series of 32 etchings by the artist of the same title. In 2019 a retrospective curated by Kosme de Barañano was held at the
Gallerie dell'Accademia in
Venice to coincide with the
58th Venice Biennale, the first exhibition by a living artist in the museum gallery. He also curated a special exhibition celebrating the life and work of his friend and fellow artist,
Emilio Vedova, at the
Fondazione Emilio e Annabianca Vedova, entitled
Vedova di/by Baselitz. In October 2021 a major retrospective of Baselitz's opened at the
Centre Pompidou in Paris, including paintings, sculptures, drawings, and prints, as well as display cases with archival and documentary material. The exhibition was the last one curated by
Bernard Blistène as the director of the museum. ==Style==