The Facts
Georg Baselitz, the 87-year-old German painter known for his upside-down compositions, has completed a new cycle of large-scale paintings featuring his wife Elke Kretzschmar and himself. The works, some over four meters high, are executed in black on gold or gold on black backgrounds. Parts of this series, titled 'Baselitz eroi d'oro', will be presented at the Palazzo Cini in Venice. The artist, who turns 88 on January 23, discussed the motivations behind the monumental scale and gold grounds in an interview with Süddeutsche Zeitung, describing the works as an act of aggression against market expectations.
The Signal
Baselitz's continued defiance of the art market is central to the new work. By producing paintings too large for most collectors' walls and using an archaic gold background that evokes icons and mummy portraits, he deliberately undermines commercial logic. The gesture underscores his enduring commitment to artistic provocation over salability, even as he works from a wheelchair in his Ammersee studio. For collectors and curators, the upcoming Palazzo Cini presentation offers a rare chance to see a self-consciously 'anti-market' series by a living legend, whose rhetoric of hatred and freedom remains as sharp as ever.
- Artists: Georg Baselitz
- People: Elke Kretzschmar, Reinhard J. Brembeck
- Galleries: Thaddaeus Ropac
- Museums: Palazzo Cini
- Locations: Venice, Lake Ammersee, Deutschbaselitz
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