Georg Baselitz

Renowned for his upside-down paintings, Georg Baselitz is one of the most celebrated artists working today. Rising to prominence in the decades after World War II, he established a new identity for German art, forging a raw and emotive style which spans painting, printmaking and sculpture.

Rejecting the two predominant artistic movements of the time, namely those of Eastern-Bloc Socialist Realism and Western abstraction, Baselitz consistently emphasises the human form, his figures often rendered in vivid and visceral colour palettes.

Born Hans-Georg Kern in Deutschbaselitz, Saxony, an area which would later become the German Democratic Republic, the artist enrolled at the Hochschule für Bildende und Angewandte Kunst in East Berlin in 1956. Expelled for ‘political immaturity’, he went on to complete his studies in West Berlin between 1961 and 1962. During this time, he changed his surname to Baselitz as a homage to his birthplace. He also published the ‘Pandemonic Manifestos’, a series of iconoclastic texts which denounced mainstream art in Germany at the time.

While engaging with deep-rooted Teutonic themes, Baselitz would establish a practice which was markedly his own. ‘When I make my paintings,’ he has said, ‘I begin to do things as if I were the first, the only one, as if none of these examples existed.’

Among Baselitz’s most iconic early works are his Helden (Heroes) (1965–66), which depict warriors in ravaged landscapes, their dishevelled appearance picturing the tragedy and trauma of recent history. From 1969, he began to depict his subjects upside down in a bid to ‘empty’ them of content, putting their symbolic power under new tension. A central figure in Baselitz’s oeuvre is his wife Elke, who began to appear in inverted portraits in the late 1960s.

The 1980s marked another notable shift in his practice, when Baselitz made his first foray into sculpture with a series of radical, large-scale wooden figures. In 2005, he began his Remix series, a body of work which presented reimagined versions of significant earlier works, enabling him to both revisit the past and expand upon his mature practice.


GEORG BASELITZ (B. 1938)

Ach, Mädchen grün

Georg Baselitz (b. 1938)

Der Brückechor (The Brücke Chorus)

格奥尔格·巴泽利茨 (1938 年生)

《躬身的饮酒者》

GEORG BASELITZ (B. 1938)

Frau Paganismus (Mrs Paganism)

GEORG BASELITZ (B. 1938)

Frau am Strand

Georg Baselitz (b. 1938)

Die Geisselung (The Flagellation)

Georg Baselitz (B. 1938)

Adler (Eagle)

Georg Baselitz (B. 1938)

Orangenesser VII

GEORG BASELITZ (B. 1938)

Mann mit Tablett

Georg Baselitz (b. 1938)

Fingermalerei - Akt (Finger Painting – Nude)

GEORG BASELITZ (B. 1938)

Die Auferstehung (The Resurrection)

GEORG BASELITZ (B. 1938)

Weiblicher Akt - liegend (Female Nude - Lying)

Georg Baselitz (B. 1938)

Meine neue Mütze (My New Cap)

Georg Baselitz (B. 1938)

Geteilter Held

Georg Baselitz (b. 1938)

Dreieck zwischen Arm und Rumpf (Triangle between Arm and Torso)

Georg Baselitz (b. 1938)

Der Halbierte (The Halved)

Georg Baselitz (né en 1938)

Schwarze Kaffeekanne

Georg Baselitz (b. 1938)

Adler (Eagle)

GEORG BASELITZ (B. 1938)

Orangenesser (Orange Eater)

Georg Baselitz (b. 1938)

Franz im Bett

Georg Baselitz (b. 1938)

Fingermalerei - Haubentaucher (Finger Painting - Great Crested Grebe)

GEORG BASELITZ (B. 1938)

Ein zerrissener Hund, aufwärts (A Fractured Dog, Upwards)

Georg Baselitz (b. 1938)

Fingermalerei - Haubentaucher (Finger Painting - Great Crested Grebe)

Georg Baselitz (b. 1938)

Malermund (Painter's Mouth)

Georg Baselitz (b. 1938)

Fingermalerei-Birken (Finger Painting- Birch Trees)

GEORG BASELITZ (GERMANY, B. 1938)

Stilleben 1 (Still Life 1)

Georg Baselitz (b. 1938)

Strandbild 10-Night in Tunisia II (Beach Picture 10-Night in Tunisia II)

GEORG BASELITZ (B. 1938)

Locke (Tress)

Georg Baselitz (né en 1938)

Wegtreten, der Mantel

Georg Baselitz (b. 1938)

Adler (Eagle)

GEORG BASELITZ (B. 1938)

Zwei Rehe (Two Deer)

Georg Baselitz (b. 1938)

Die Schwalbe (The Swallow)

GEORG BASELITZ (B. 1938)

Bitte hinter dem Kopf zurücktreten

Georg Baselitz (b. 1938)

Die Dornenkrönung (The Crowning with Thorns)

GEORG BASELITZ (B. 1938)

Victory Day - Indianer

Georg Baselitz (b. 1938)

Mädchen kommt - Ralf

Georg Baselitz (b. 1938)

Trauerseeschwalbe (Black Tern)

Georg Baselitz (b. 1938)

Der Soldat - Die Dresdner Frauen

Georg Baselitz (b. 1938)

Strandbild 10-Night in Tunisia II (Beach Picture 10-Night in Tunisia II)

Georg Baselitz (b. 1938)

Schneespitzen (Snowpeaks)

Georg Baselitz (b. 1938)

Die Kuh (The Cow)

Georg Baselitz (b. 1938)

Bildneunundzwanzig (Picture 29)

Georg Baselitz (B. 1938)

Schritt über die Schwelle 3-18.VI.1985 (Step Over the Threshold)

GEORG BASELITZ (B. 1938)

Hirte (Remix)

GEORG BASELITZ (B. 1938)

War einmal (Once upon a time)

GEORG BASELITZ (B. 1938)

Elke Rayskizeit

Georg Baselitz (b. 1938)

Vier Hände (Four Hands)