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| Georg Baselitz (*1938), The Shepherd, 1966, Oil on canvas, 162 x 130 cm, Museum Frieder Burda, Baden-Baden, © Georg Baselitz 2016, Photo: Jochen Littkemann, Berlin |
30 JUNE to 23 OCTOBER 2016, Städel
Museum, Exhibition Annex
From
30 June to 23 October 2016, the Städel Museum is presenting Georg Baselitz’s
famous “Heroes” in a comprehensive monographic special exhibition fifty years
after the paintings’ making. Georg Baselitz (b. 1938) definitely ranks among
the most influential painters and sculptors of our time. His powerful workgroup
of “Heroes” and “New Types” is regarded as a key achievement of 1960s German
art all over the world.
In
the exhibition curated by Max Hollein, it is being shown on a large scale for
the first time. Some seventy paintings and works on paper are on view: their
aggressively and defiantly painted monumental figures have lost nothing of their
ambiguous, portentous and vulnerable quality to this day. Baselitz’s “Heroes”
are raddled soldiers, resigned painters, marked by their latent failure as well
as by their uncertain future. The fragility and contradictory nature of the
“Heroes” in terms of contents find their formal equivalent. The consistently
frontal depiction and central placement of the clearly outlined figures
contrast with the wildness of the artist’s palette and the vehemence of his
painting style. Loans from important international museums and private
collections offer the public a wide-ranging view of these icons of German
postwar art conceived by the only twenty-sevenyear old artist in a spurt of
explosive productivity in 1965 and 1966. After its début at the Städel Museum
in Frankfurt, the major exhibition will travel to the Moderna Museet Stockholm,
the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome, and the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao.
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Georg
Baselitz (*1938), A New Type, 1966, Oil on canvas, 162 x 130 cm, Privately
owned
Photo:
Frank Oleski, Köln, © Georg Baselitz 2016
|
The
exhibition “Georg Baselitz. The Heroes” is being sponsored by Goldman Sachs. “The
‘Heroes’ are both a landmark and a fervent pivot in Georg Baselitz’s oeuvre. They
have sprung from a deep, inner necessity in a deliberate confrontation with pressing,
charged subjects and unfold a timeless reflection on the artist’s existence as
such. Giving expression to strikingly visualized and self-felt isolation,
uprooting, and lack of orientation, the works render the artist’s precarious
state of experience in a broken world, establishing a paradigmatic image of his
condition”, says Max Hollein, curator of the show.
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| Georg Baselitz, 2014, Photo: Peter Knaup |
GEORG BASELITZ:
Born
in Deutschbaselitz in eastern Saxony on 23 January 1938, Georg Baselitz began
his studies at the College of Fine Arts in Berlin-Weissensee (East). After he
had been expelled from the school because of “sociopolitical immaturity” after two
semesters, he continued his studies in Berlin-Charlottenburg (West) in 1957.
First
travels abroad led him to Amsterdam and Paris. 1961 saw the beginning of his
exhibition activities together with Eugen Schönebeck in an unoccupied house, on
the occasion of which the first “Pandemonium Manifesto,” as it came to be called,
was published. The following gallery shows were controversially received. In
1966 Baselitz left Berlin for a town in Rhine-Hesse near Worms. He painted his
first picture showing its motif upside down in 1969 – a decision he remained true
to throughout his further career. As he became more and more renowned, he
increasingly presented his works in exhibitions abroad; in 1980 he and Anselm
Kiefer were invited to represent the Federal Republic of Germany at the 39th
Venice Biennale. Much-acclaimed exhibitions in various countries such as Great
Britain and the United States followed. Baselitz continued his teaching activities,
which he had begun in Karlsruhe in 1978, in Berlin from 1983 to 1988 and from
1992 on. Numerous retrospectives, honors, awards, and honorary professorships
still pay tribute to the outstanding relevance of his work.
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| Georg Baselitz (*1938), Blocked Painter, 1965, Oil on canvas, 162 x 130 cm, MKM Museum Küppersmühle für Moderne Kunst, Duisburg, Collection Ströher, © Georg Baselitz 2016, Photo: Archiv Sammlung Ströher |
GEORG BASELITZ. THE HEROES
Curator:
Max Hollein, director, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
Co-curator:
Dr Eva Mongi-Vollmer, Städel Museum
Exhibition
dates: 30 June to 23 October 2016
Location:
Städel Museum, Schaumainkai 63, 60596 Frankfurt am Main
Information:
www.staedelmuseum.de, info@staedelmuseum.de,
phone
+49(0)69-605098-200, fax +49(0)69-605098-112
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| Georg Baselitz (*1938), With Red Flag, 1965, Oil on canvas, 163 x 131 cm, Private collection courtesy of Art Agency, Partners, © Georg Baselitz 2016, Photo: Frank Oleski, Köln |
