Georg Baselitz: Time for New Heroes

In an interview with Ulrich Weisner conducted in Derneburg on 22 August 1989, Baselitz recalled "I always made woodcuts right when the urgent need arose to refine an image, an idea of an image, that I had developed and that was manifested in paintings - to precisely refine that image's idea into a final form." Though initially heralded as a painter, Baselitz maintained an unusual commitment to developing form fluidly between painting, drawing, sculpture and printmaking, melding the processes and challenges inherent to each medium as a way of informing his overall practice. By pursuing the historically rich, perennially outdated, and technically difficult craft of etchings and woodcuts, Baselitz has positioned himself as a prolific contemporary outsider within a historical lineage that includes Albrecht Dürer, Pontormo, the School of Fontainebleau, and Edvard Munch. With each exercise and with each innovation, Baselitz illustrates a lifelong fidelity to printmaking and a Sisyphean commitment towards an elusive 'final form.'

One of the most important German artists of the post-war period, Hans-Georg Kern was born in 1938 in the Saxon village of Deutschbaselitz. In 1961 he adopted the name Georg Baselitz in homage to his birthplace. Baselitz has exhibited his work internationally for decades. Major solo presentations include a retrospective organized by the Guggenheim Museum, New York, that traveled to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C., the Nationalgalerie Berlin (1995-96) followed by a major show at Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (1996). Baselitz's Remix cycle was first presented at the Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich (2006), and the Albertina, Vienna (2007), the same year as his retrospective at the Royal Academy of Arts, London (2007). A comprehensive survey of Baselitz's sculptures was held at the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (2011 - 2012), followed by solo exhibitions at the Albertina, Vienna (2013), and Haus der Kunst, Munich (2014). Baselitz's Heldenbilder (Hero Paintings) and Neue Typen (New Types) were shown at the Städel Museum, Frankfurt (2016), travelling to the Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome; and Guggenheim Bilbao. In 2018, comprehensive solo exhibitions were held at the Fondation Beyeler, Basel; Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, D.C.; and Musée Unterlinden, Colmar, France. Most recently, important solo exhibitions of his work have been presented at Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice, Italy (2019), Centre Pompidou, Paris, France (2021-22), Museo di Palazzo Grimani, Venice, Italy (2021-22), The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY (2022), Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna (2023), Serpentine Gallery, London (2023), Sakıp Sabancı Museum, Istanbul (2024), KODE Bergen and at Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao (2025), Museo Novecento, Florence (2026), and MdM Salzburg (2026). Baselitz (1938 - 2026) lived and worked between two different locations: Lake Ammersee in Bavaria, near Salzburg, Austria and in Imperia, Italy. His works can be found in institutional collections around the world.

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