Georg Baselitz and the museum trail of his monumental figures
18.06.2026 - 23:08:16 | ad-hoc-news.de
Georg Baselitz has, over six decades, pushed painting and sculpture into uneasy territory with his upside-down figures and rough-hewn totemic carvings. His work anchors many museum narratives of postwar German art, from Dresden to New York, through major acquisitions and retrospectives.
Baselitz in major collections
Museums began integrating Georg Baselitz into their collections relatively early, acknowledging his role in redefining German figuration after 1960. MoMA in New York holds key paintings such as the 1965 canvas The Great Friends, which shows two monumental, almost brutal figures confronting the viewer.
The Tate in London includes Baselitz within its display of postwar European painting, for instance with the 1966 work Die große Nacht im Eimer (The Big Night Down the Drain), a painting long discussed for its explicit and disturbing exploration of masculinity and power. These placements position him alongside peers like Anselm Kiefer and Gerhard Richter.
How museums frame his postwar role
Public collections often use Georg Baselitz to represent the shift away from both socialist realism and West German abstraction toward a raw, psychologically charged figuration. German museums such as the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden emphasize how his upbringing in Saxony and his engagement with East German contexts feed into the fractured bodies of his figures.
In broader European displays, institutions highlight Baselitz as part of the so-called Neue Wilde and related currents, stressing his use of expressive brushwork, thick impasto, and the inversion of motifs as strategies to question heroic histories and national myths. Curators frequently juxtapose his works with historical German painting to underline these breaks and continuities.
All news and background on Georg Baselitz
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The work core and its media
Georg Baselitz moves between painting, wood sculpture, drawing, and printmaking, yet returns constantly to the human figure. His decision around 1969 to paint motifs upside down, as in the series Helden and later works, uncouples representation from narrative readability and foregrounds painterly gesture.
His monumental wooden sculptures, often roughly hewn with a chainsaw, extend this strategy into three dimensions. Figures appear scarred and block-like, with visible tool marks that echo the broken surfaces of Germany’s postwar landscape and the psychological fractures of its society.
Where the artist stands now
Georg Baselitz continues to be represented in major museum displays and scholarly catalogues that treat him as a central, if contested, voice in postwar German painting and sculpture.
Key facts on Georg Baselitz
- Artist: Georg Baselitz
- Medium / Genre: Painting and sculpture (postwar figurative)
- Born: 1938, Deutschbaselitz, Saxony, Germany
- Place(s) of practice: Studios in Germany, with a long-standing base in Saxony and work periods in Italy and elsewhere
- Active since: Early 1960s, with a first solo exhibition in 1963 in West Berlin that drew significant controversy for explicit imagery.
- Key work groups: Helden (Heroes) paintings, inverted figure paintings, monumental wood sculptures, late self-portrait series.
- Current/last exhibition: The most recent widely reported institutional presentations situate Baselitz within surveys of German postwar art rather than as a new solo show, reflecting his established canon position.
- Major collections: MoMA (New York), Tate (London), Centre Pompidou (Paris), Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Nationalgalerie (Berlin).
- Awards: Praemium Imperiale for painting 2019 (Japan Art Association), Goslar Kaiserring 1987, among other honors.
- Next date: No institutionally confirmed public date within the immediate 30-day horizon has been announced in open sources.
Frequently asked questions about Georg Baselitz
Which museums show Georg Baselitz today?
Baselitz is part of the permanent collections of major institutions including MoMA in New York, Tate in London, Centre Pompidou in Paris, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, and the Nationalgalerie in Berlin, where his works appear in rotating collection displays.
What defines Georg Baselitz’s painting style?
Baselitz is known for expressive, often thickly worked figurative canvases and his choice, from around 1969 onward, to paint motifs upside down, separating painterly structure from conventional narrative content.
Which awards has Georg Baselitz received?
Among several honors, Baselitz received the Praemium Imperiale for painting in 2019 from the Japan Art Association and the Goslar Kaiserring in 1987, underlining his international standing in postwar art history.
This article was produced with a.i. support and editorially reviewed. All statements without guarantee; auction results, exhibition dates and awards may change at short notice.
