GEORG BASELITZ

Born on January 23, 1938, as Hans-Georg Bruno Kern in Deutschbaselitz, Saxony. From 1956, studied at the Academy of Fine and Applied Arts in East Berlin. Expelled from the academy after two semesters for “socio-political immaturity.” From 1957 to 1963, continued his studies with Hann Trier at the Academy of Fine Arts in West Berlin. 1960: The “Rayski Portraits” were his first valid works. 1961: Adopted the artist name Georg Baselitz. 1963: First solo exhibition at the Werner & Katz Gallery in Berlin. A scandal ensues, and the paintings “Die große Nacht im Eimer” (The Big Night Down the Drain) and “Der nackte Mann” (The Naked Man) are confiscated.

The trial for causing public outrage ended in 1965 with the return of the paintings. Baselitz suddenly became known to a wide audience. In 1965, he received a scholarship to Villa Romana in Florence. Over the course of a year—1965/66—he created a large number of works on the same theme. He processed impressions from his life in the series “New Types” and “Heroes.” In 1966, he held his first exhibition of several “Heroes” at the Springer Gallery in Berlin. He moved to Osthofen near Worms. In the 1970s, Baselitz began painting his motifs upside down. The “Forest on its Head” was followed by large-format nudes painted with his fingers. In 1975, Baselitz bought Derneburg Castle near Hildesheim. In the early 1980s, he turned his attention to sculpture. Since the late 1980s, Baselitz has been painting on the floor, which he compares to “looking into hell.” In the late 1990s, Baselitz revisited the aesthetics of his youth in the GDR with his “Russian paintings.” In 2005, he began a new phase of work: Remix. Images from the past are questioned and repainted.

From 1977 to 1983, he was a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Karlsruhe. From 1983 to 1988, Baselitz taught at the University of the Arts in West Berlin, and from 1992 to 2003 at the Berlin University of the Arts. In 1999, he became an honorary member of the Royal Academy of Arts, London, and in 2009, a full member of the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts. Since 2000, he has been an honorary professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow and, since 2004, at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence. In 2006, he was made an honorary citizen of the city of Imperia.

Baselitz is one of the great artistic personalities of the 20th and early 21st centuries. His personal behavior and critical painting style are directly related to developments in the postwar period. It is about breaking taboos (“Die große Nacht im Eimer” [The Big Night Down the Drain]), about the positioning of painting in relation to reality (pictures that are upside down, from the mid-1970s onwards), and about the so-called “Russian pictures,” which alienate socialist realism. Baselitz's desire for change even “reforms” the works of his own past.

Awards (Selection)
2012 Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur
2009 Cologne-Fine-Art-Prize
2005 Austrian Decoration of Honour for Science and Art
2004 Praemium Imperiale
2003 State Award of Lower Saxony
2002 Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres
2001 Julio González-Prize
1999 Rhenus-Art Award
1992 Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres
1986 Goslarer Kaiserring (Imperial Ring of Goslar)

Solo exhibitions (Selection)
2018 Paintings from the 80s. Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, London
2018 Works on Paper. Kunstmuseum Basel
2018 Retrospective. Fondation Beyeler, Basel
2018 Six Decades. Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington
2017 Georg Baselitz, Preview with Review. Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest
2017 The Heroes. Guggenheim Bilbao
2016 Die Helden (The Heroes). Städel Museum, Frankfurt; Moderna Museet, Stockholm
2014 Georg Baselitz - Damals, dazwischen und heute (Then, in between and now). Haus der Kunst, Munich
2013 Georg Baselitz - Werke von 1968 bis 2012 (Works from 1968 to 2012). Essl Museum, Klosterneuburg
2013 Georg Baselitz. Albertina, Vienna
2010 Skulpturen. Staatliche Kunsthalle, Baden-Baden,
2010 Remix. Helsinki Art Museum Tennis Palace, Helsinki
2009 Baselitz - 30 Jahre Skulptur (30 Years of sculpture). Staatliche Kunsthalle, Baden-Baden
2009 Baselitz - 50 Jahre Malerei (50 Years of painting). Museum Frieder Burda, Baden-Baden
2009 Georg Baselitz - Gemälde und Skulpturen 1960-2008 (Paintings and sculptures). Museum der Moderne, Salzburg; Galerie Rudolfinum, Prague
2007 Georg Baselitz: A Retrospective. Royal Academy of Arts, London
2007 Russenbilder (Russian Paintings). Musée d’Art Moderne, Saint-Étienne
2007 Remix. Albertina, Vienna
2007 Die Russenbilder (Russian Paintings). Deichtorhallen, Hamburg
2006 Retrospective. Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk
2006 Remix – Dialog der Bilder (Picture dialogue). Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich
2003 Die monumentalen Aquarelle (Monumental watercolors). Albertina, Vienna; Frac Picardie, Amiens
2004 Retrospective. Bundeskunsthalle Bonn
2000 Im Walde von Blainville. Malerei 1996-2000 (In the forest fo Blainville. Paintings 1996-2000). Essl Museum, Klosterneuburg
1999 Reise in die Niederlande 1972-1999 (Journey tot he Netherlands). Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
1999 Das große Pathos - Gemälde - Zeichnungen – Graphik (The Great Pathos – Paintings – drawings – graphic works). Hamburger Kunsthalle
1999 Nostalgie in Istanbul (Nostalgia in Istanbul). Deutsches Guggenheim, Berlin
1996 Retrospective. Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville, Paris
1995 Retrospective. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington; Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin
1992 Georg Baselitz - Prints 1964-1990. Tate Gallery, London
1992 Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Vienna
1990 Retrospective. Kunsthaus, Zürich; Kunsthalle, Düsseldorf
1983 Retrospective. Whitechapel Gallery, London; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Kunsthalle, Basel
1981 Xavier Fourcade Gallery, New York
1980 Venice Biennale (German pavilion with Anselm Kiefer)
1979 Paintings 1977-1978. Van Abbemuseum, Eindhofen
1976 Retrospective. Kunsthalle, Bern; Staatsgalerie Moderner Kunst, München; Kunsthalle, Köln

Group exhibitions (Selection)
2019 Baselitz-Richter-Polke-Kiefer. Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart; Deichtorhallen, Hamburg
2016 Baselitz, Lüpertz, Penck, Immendorff. Gemeente Museum, The Hague
2015 Inbetween Baselitz – McCarthy. George Economou Collection Space, Athens
2015 Venice Biennale
2015 Georg Baselitz & Emilio Vedova. Galerie Ropac, Salzburg
2014 Germany divided, Baselitz and his generation. British Museum, London
2013 Baselitz - Richter – Kiefer. Albertina, Vienna
2013 Historias de la Historia: Cy Twombly y Georg Baselitz. Guggenheim, Bilbao
2011 Baselitz. Arnulf-Rainer-Museum, Baden/Vienna
2008 Baselitz zu Lassnig - Meisterhafte Bilder (From Baselitz to Lassnig – Masterpieces). Essl Museum, Klosterneuburg
2007 Georg Baselitz + Benjamin Katz - die Richtung stimmt (It's the right direction). Kunstmuseum, Bremerhaven
2004 Silent Power - Baselitz, Immendorff, Lüpertz, Penck. Himalayas Art Museum, Shanghai
2001 Von Rodin bis Baselitz - Der Torso in der Skulptur der Moderne (From Rodin to Baselitz – The Torso in Modern Sculpture . Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart
1996 Baselitz – Lüpertz. Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris
1993 Venice Biennale
1982 Zeitgeist. Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin
1972/1982/1992 documenta 5, 7, 9, Kassel

Bibliography (Selection)
2018 Schwander, Martin (publisher): Baselitz. Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz
2014 Wilmes, Ulrich (publisher): Georg Baselitz - Damals, dazwischen und heute. München: Prestel
2009 Stooss, Toni (publisher): Georg Baselitz - Gemälde und Skulpturen 1960-2008. Cologne: Dumont
2008 Malycha, Christian: Das Motiv ohne Inhalt - Malerei bei Georg Baselitz 1959-1969. Bielefeld: Kerber Verlag
2002 Gretenkort, Detlev (publisher): Georg Baselitz - Paintings 1962-2001. Mailand: Alberico Cetti Serbelloni