Georg Baselitz, German Artist Who Confronted Nazi Past, Dies at 88, Thaddaeus Ropac Confirms
The Facts
Georg Baselitz, the German painter and sculptor whose provocative, often upside-down works directly confronted Germany's Nazi past, has died at age 88, Thaddaeus Ropac gallery confirmed. Born in 1938, Baselitz experienced both Nazi Germany and East German communism before crossing to the West. His 1961 painting "Die große Nacht im Eimer" (The Big Night Down the Drain) shocked postwar West Germany with an obscene depiction of a masturbating figure with Hitlerian features. He later painted upside-down German eagles and carved a large wooden statue of a saluting Adolf Hitler, confronting the nation's historical guilt directly.
The Signal
Baselitz's death marks the loss of a living link to the traumatic history he spent his career dissecting. For collectors and curators, his work remains a cornerstone of post-war German art, forcing a reckoning with the past that many preferred to forget. His aggressive, anti-graceful style and upside-down compositions established him as a singular voice in contemporary painting, one whose relevance only grows as the generation of direct witnesses to World War II passes away.
- Artists: Georg Baselitz
- People: Jonathan Jones
- Galleries: Thaddaeus Ropac
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