Georg Baselitz, a titan of 20th-century art, has died at 88. Thaddaeus Ropac, one of the galleries that represents the artist, announced his death with an obituary from Baselitz’s family.
The poet Robert Isaf writes in the statement that Baselitz—known for his large-scale, expressionistic canvases—“defined German visual art for a generation, profoundly influencing artists around and after him and the international world of art.” Isaf confirmed in the statement that the artist died “peacefully.”
Baselitz was born Hans-Georg Bruno Kern in Deutschbaselitz, Germany, in 1938. His family lived first under the Nazi regime, then under the East German government. Early on, the artist fought for art-world acceptance. The Art Academy of Dresden rejected him, the Weißensee Academy of Fine and Applied Arts in East Berlin suspended him, his peers accused him of “sociopolitical immaturity,” and the press called his style “pornographic” after he debuted his first solo exhibition, in West Berlin, in 1963.
Baselitz experienced a breakthrough with his “Heroes” series (1965–66). The large-scale oil paintings featured thickly rendered male figures. They were often larger than life, appearing in torn uniforms across ruined landscapes. By the end of the decade, Baselitz had inverted his figures. The motif became his calling card and persisted through the decades. Isaf writes, “What elevates Baselitz to the status of era-defining visionary is not his command of contour, for instance, or shadow, but of relationship—that is to say, the relationship between viewer and viewed.”
Art historians often situate Baselitz’s work alongside that of fellow Germans Gerhard Richter and Anselm Kiefer, who similarly wrestled with their country’s legacies of violence and repression. The artist has also been deemed a Neo-Expressionist for mounting what the New York Times called “a frontal attack on Minimalism and Conceptualism, the dominant ‘cool’ styles of the 1970s.” Isaf situates the artist within the world of Pop, “which most fully among contemporary movements could be said to take up manipulating the dimension of viewer relationship as its core concern.”
Baselitz mounted several high-profile exhibitions over his long career. In 1972, he exhibited in Documenta in Kassel, Germany. He represented Germany at the 1980 Venice Biennale. More recently, the Centre Pompidou opened a major retrospective in Paris in 2021, and White Cube and Gagosian, which also represent the artist, have presented solo shows in the past few years.
Baselitz continued working until his death. On May 6, the Fondazione Giorgio Cini, in Venice, will open “Eroi d’Oro.” The presentation will coincide with the 61st Venice Biennale and feature the artist’s most recent series of paintings, which depict self-portraits and renderings of Elke, the artist’s wife. She survives him, along with his sons, gallerists Daniel Blau and Anton Kern. In the obituary, Isaf writes, “[Baselitz’s] ultimate subject is and will always have been Elke. His final paintings, his portraits of him and her, honest, unflinching, and profoundly human, come to terms with all of what this means. They float suspended, inverted, among golden eternity and the many gilded worlds and lives they’ve lived together.”
Baselitz continued working until his passing. On May 6, the Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice will open “Eroi d’Oro.” The presentation will coincide with the 61st Venice Biennale and feature the artist’s most recent series of paintings. They depict self-portraits and renderings of Elke, the artist’s wife. She survives him, along with his sons, gallerists Daniel Blau and Anton Kern. In the obituary, Isaf writes: “[Baselitz’s] ultimate subject is and will always have been Elke. His final paintings, his portraits of him and her, honest, unflinching, and profoundly human, come to terms with all of what this means. They float suspended, inverted, among golden eternity and the many gilded worlds and lives they’ve lived together.”
