Georg Baselitz (b. 1938)

Georg Baselitz (b. 1938)
Untitled (23.XI.06)
dated '23.XI.06' (lower left); signed 'G. Baselitz' (lower right)
pen and ink on watercolour
25⅞ x 20⅛in. (65.7 x 51.1cm.)
Executed in 2006

Provenance:
Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin.
Private Collection.

Exhibited:
Berlin, Contemporary Fine Arts, Georg Baselitz, The Bridge Ghost's Supper, 2007, no. 22 (illustrated in colour, p. 22).
London, Karsten Schubert, Ridinghouse Benefit: A Changing Group Exhibition, 2010-2011.

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Specialist Notes:

Renowned artist Georg Baselitz’s watercolours combine fine graphic lines with rough splashes of colour to present dynamic works suffused with light, movement and vitality. By contrasting the light delicacy of watercolour with the sharp definition of ink, Baselitz brings spontaneous expression and liveliness to his imagery. Visually challenging the viewer and himself with his inverted compositions, Baselitz succeeds in retaining the intrinsic characteristics and questions and question concepts of familiarity, traditional composition and perspective painting. Through this new viewpoint, Baselitz challenges conventional ways of seeing and compels us to consider a different order for the interpretation of the work.

Legs and feet have been a recurring motif in Baselitz’s art as he viewed them as a means of powerful expression. In his early twenties, Baselitz became fascinated by Rembrandt’s dissection paintings and started working on depictions of foot fragments which were not just plain and neutral studies, but expressive, elaborated compositions. Baselitz wanted to provoke and confront traditional ideas of beauty, giving no consideration to where the feet would normally appear in the composition. Feet, which are the human part of the body that ensure stability, are at the same time flexible and moving and allow us to move freely in space. Through this complex metaphor which encompasses the existential opposites of stable presence and nomadic activity, Baselitz challenges the traditional notions of roots and grounding. ‘Feet are my earthing; earthing is more important to me than emission. Receiving via earthing works much better with me than via antenna – I may have more to do with trolls than with angels’ (G. Baselitz, quoted in Georg Baselitz Gemälde und Arbeiten auf Paper von 1971 bis 2004, exh. cat., Galerie Henze & Ketterer, Switzerland, 2008, p. 19).

As with all Baselitz's work since 1969 the images have been inverted so as to render insignificant a literal interpretation of the image in the quest for pure art. By presenting his images upside-down, Baselitz wants us to distance ourselves from the subject and focus on the picture as picture, as colour and form that is not connected to the reality outside of the painting. Accordingly the images have no symbolic meaning for the artist. Thus while a line may describe an image, it is primarily emancipated from its descriptive role and becomes detached from the printed background. This flexibility and renewed vision, together with the elegant simplicity of the artist’s motifs, enables his art to be absorbed purely in a visual way.

This work is featured in our How to Collect like a Tate Curator article – find out more here.

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