Georg Baselitz
Further images
Thirty years after making Modell für eine Skulptur (1979-80), Baselitz completed the monumental sculpture, Dunklung Nachtung Amung Ding (2009). The seated figure wears a white cap that resembles Baselitz's studio hat from this period, which the artist first included e.g. in an earlier sculpture titled Meine neue Mütze (2003). Adapted to possibly also resemble a wartime pimpf style with shortened brim, Baselitz then added to the cap the painted inscription ZERO, suggesting both the starting point for inspiration and a reference to Stunde Null (zero-hour, midnight on 8 May 1945). The hulking figure mirrors Rodin's The Thinker (1904) in overall form but not in its precise execution, with splattered and uneven blue paint perhaps interrupting a moment of contemplation it refers to the much older sculptural tradition of the "Pensive Christ" which is still popular in especially Eastern European Folk Art (e.g. in Poland as 'Chrystus Frasobliwy'). The grain of the cedar wood is conspicuous and acts as an additional visual layer, both within the produced rough and jagged edges as well as the inherent cracks within the material.