BASELITZ

As a major artist on the contemporary scene, the German painter Georg Baselitz has the place of honour this summer at the Fondation de l'Hermitage. With about a hundred oils, drawing, prints and sculptures mostly from the artist’s personal collection, the exhibition gives a more essential as well as a more intimate vision of Baselitz’s intense work now shown on a par with the greatest, from Picasso to Bacon.

Powerful, monumental creations

Born in 1938, Baselitz was among the tiny galaxy of Neo-Expressionist German artists in the Seventies, sometimes known as «Neue Wilden», who focused on deformation, the force of matter and the vibrancy of colours. His powerful, monumental creations are some of the most assertive and disturbing of the 20th century.

The painting’s formal organization

Famous for his upside-down images, Baselitz, the subversive painter, concentrates in fact essentially on aspects of the painting’s formal organization. Since 1969, whether painting or drawing heroic figures, landscapes, still lifes or self-portraits, he has inverted the motifs of his pictures. This disorientation renews the fascination linking the viewer with traditional figuration and enhances the image’s attraction. As the subject matter is less important than its visual realization, the artist has varied his way of painting over the years. He initially highlighted the interaction of superimposing layers of matter and his style was so ardent it sometimes seems close to Edvard Munch’s. Since 1990 it has evolved towards more transparency and fluidity.

A relentless quest for the brush-born image.

This retrospective selection, spanning the period from 1960 to 2005, takes us back over the artist’s career and proposes a series of core themes. It is an invitation to a fascinating painting lesson pinpointing the significant stages of a coherent, relentless quest for the brush-born image.

PUBLICATION

Exhibition catalogue, co-edited by the Fondation de l’Hermitage and Bibliothèque des Arts, 180 pages, 24 x 29 cm, 100 color illustrations, ISBN 10 : 2-88453-130-0. Price at the museum: CHF 48.-

Around the exhibition

Adults: guided tours, lectures, special evenings
Children: workshops, free brochures
Information : www.fondation-hermitage.ch and bookings: tel. +41 (0)21 320 50 01

Illustration: Georg BASELITZ Orangenesser VI, 1981,oil and tempera on canvas, 146 x 114 cm, artist’s collection © photo Jochen Littkemann, Berlin

To see more illustrations, click on VERSION FRANCAISE at the top of this page