Farewell to Georg Baselitz, among the great innovators of European painting

The celebrated German painter Georg Baselitz, among the most influential figures incontemporary European art, died today at the age of 88.
Born in 1938 in Deutschbaselitz, then East Germany, as Hans-Georg Kern, he moved in 1956 to East Berlin, where he began his studies at the Hochschule für Bildende und Angewandte Kunst. He continued his education between 1957 and 1962 at the Hochschule der Bildenden Künste in West Berlin. It was during these years that he adopted the surname Baselitz, inspired by his place of origin.

From the beginning, the artist sought an alternative path to both Socialist Realism and Informal Art, also takingan interest inanamorphosis and artistic expressions related to mental illness. In 1963, his first solo exhibition at Galerie Werner & Katz caused a major scandal: some works were seized on charges of obscenity. Two years later he stayed for six months at Villa Romana in Florence, starting a lasting relationship with Italy. Moving to Osthofen in 1966, he began working on woodcuts and a series of fragmented paintings inspired by the rural world. His first works with upside-down subjects also appeared during this period, a radical choice aimed at overcoming the narrative and content dimensions of painting.

In 1975 he settled in Derneburg and undertook his first international trips, to New York and Brazil for the São Paulo Biennial. The following year, the Staatsgalerie Moderner Kunst devoted a major retrospective to him. At the same time he opened a studio in Florence, active until 1981, and embarked on an academic career at the Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Karlsruhe, where he became a professor.

In 1980, now an established artist, he was chosen to represent Germany at the Venice Biennale. Between the 1980s and 1990s his works were exhibited regularly at the Michael Werner Galleries in Cologne and New York. After teaching in Karlsruhe, he moved on to the Hochschule der Künste in Berlin, a post he held, with some interruptions, into the early 1990s.

Over the course of his career he has received major international recognition, with solo and retrospective exhibitions hosted in leading institutions: from the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence to the Nationalgalerie in Berlin, from the Kunsthaus Zürich to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and on to the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and the Royal Academy of Arts in London. In 2007, the Pinakothek der Moderne presented his most recent works, including the Remix series, begun in 2005, in which the artist reworks motifs and themes he has previously addressed.

Baselitz has lived between Munich and Imperia, maintaining a constant link with Italy. Currently, until September 13, 2026, the Museo Novecento in Florence is dedicating to him the exhibition Baselitz. Avanti!, a testimony to the relevance and legacy left by one of the great masters of contemporary art.

Farewell to Georg Baselitz, among the great innovators of European painting

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