George baselitz biography

Summary of Georg Baselitz

Georg Baselitz was enormously influential in showing a generation of German artists how they might come to terms with issues of art and national identity in the wake of the Second World War. Briefly trained in the officially sanctioned social realism of Communist East Berlin, he soon moved to West Berlin, and encountered abstract art. Ultimately, however, he was to reject both options. While others turned to Conceptual art, Pop, and Arte Povera, Baselitz revived the German Expressionism that had been denounced by the Nazis, and returned the human figure to a central position in painting. Controversial when he first emerged in 1963, and controversial again nearly two decades later when he began to produce sculpture, Baselitz inspired a revival of Neo-Expressionist painting in Germany in the 1970s, and his example gave encouragement to many more who took up similar styles both in Europe and the United States in the 1980s.

Accomplishments

  • Many aspects of Baselitz's work represent an attempt to revive symbols of German national identity that were tarnis

    Born of Turmoil, the Daring Artistic Legacy of Georg Baselitz

    Two powerful paintings by Neo-Expressionist German artist Georg Baselitz – Der Jäger (The Hunter)from 1966 andTrinker am Tisch (Drinker at Table)from 1983will highlight Sotheby's upcoming Contemporary Art Evening Sale (14 November, New York). Created more than fifteen years apart these two masterworks are important touchstones in Baselitz's remarkable career. Below, learn more about Baselitz and his distinct artistic trajectory.

    Georg Baselitz was born in the year preceding the outbreak of the Second World War, and he came of age in the shadow of the War’s terrible effects. In the aftermath of such devastation German artists grappled deeply with both national and artistic identity, as well as the repercussions of those identities. From such interrogations emerged a period of intense experimentation by German artists—not least of all by Baselitz himself. The canon, as it were, became subjective, even malleable as artists challenged long-held beliefs about art's meaning and significance. As Baselitz himsel

    Georg Baselitz

    German artist (born 1938)

    Georg Baselitz

    Georg Baselitz in a photograph by Oliver Mark

    Born (1938-01-23) 23 January 1938 (age 87)

    Deutschbaselitz, Germany

    NationalityGerman, Austrian
    Known forPainting, sculpture, graphic design
    MovementNeo-expressionism
    SpouseJohanna Elke Kretzschmar

    Georg Baselitz (born 23 January 1938) is a German painter, sculptor and graphic artist. In the 1960s he became well known for his figurative, expressive paintings. In 1969 he began painting his subjects upside down in an effort to overcome the representational, content-driven character of his earlier work and stress the artifice of painting.[1] Drawing from myriad influences, including art of Soviet era illustration art, the Mannerist period and African sculptures, he developed his own, distinct artistic language.[2]

    He was born as Hans-Georg Kern in Deutschbaselitz [de], Upper Lusatia, Germany. He grew up amongst the suffering and demolition of World War II, and the concept of destruction plays a

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