GEORG BASELITZ – WORKS FROM EUROPEAN COLLECTIONS

The Michael Werner Kunsthandel is delighted to announce a new exhibition „GEORG BASELITZ – WORKS FROM EUROPEAN COLLECTIONS“. Following the previous Baselitz exhibition entitled „GEORG BASELITZ – PAINTING AND DRAWING“ (November 2016 – January 2017), which included the diptych „Akt und Flasche“ (1977) and „ Birnbaum I“ (1978), two major works from the late 1970s, this show focusses on the artist's oeuvre from the early 1960s to the late 1990s.

Loans from private and institutional collections from all over Europe made it possible to present a world-class exhibition which includes 17 canvasses, one sculpture and a wide selection of works on paper. The public perception of Baselitz tends to focus on his upside-down motifs. This exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue with an article by Rudi Fuchs which analyses the artist's particular achievement as an innovator of composition in 20th century art: „One day he decided to turn his canvas upside-down. At a stroke, the whole process of picture-making became unusual and strange. It was the catalyst that led to a reconsideration and inevitably resulted in a new understanding of what we see. This peculiar process became a method for Baselitz, which represented a new freedom - the freedom to create ever new ideas.“ (Rudi Fuchs: „Baselitz: Trees between Patches and Lines“, 2019)

Born in Deutschbaselitz in 1938, Hans-Georg Kern started studying Painting at Weißensee Art College in Berlin in 1956. His expulsion from college in 1957 led to his move to West Berlin, where he published Pandemonic Manifesto 1 in cooperation with Eugen Schönebeck in 1962. The earliest works in the present exhibition originate from this period. His first exhibition in 1963, also in Berlin, was in the Werner & Katz gallery. It was greeted with scorn but was also to lead to the future success of the artist. In recent years, there have been a number of internationally renowned Baselitz exhibitions. Of particular note are the shows at the Städel in Frankfurt and the Moderna Museet in Stockholm (2016), the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao (2017), the Hirschhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington and the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice this year.