“I always work out of uncertainty, but when a painting’s finished, it becomes a fixed idea, apparently a final statement. In time, though, uncertainty returns… your thought process goes on.”
Georg Baselitz, born Hans-Georg Kern (b. 1938), is a seminal German painter, sculptor, and printmaker whose work shaped postwar Neo-Expressionism. Born in Deutschbaselitz, Saxony, Baselitz grew up amid the aftermath of World War II, drawn early to the intensity of German Expressionism and art that resisted easy categorization. He studied at the Academy of Art in East Berlin before moving to West Berlin to complete his education, adopting the name Baselitz in homage to his birthplace. By the 1960s, he emerged as a bold, independent voice, rejecting the dominant styles of Socialist Realism and abstraction in favor of a personal, expressive idiom rooted in figuration and emotion.
In 1969, the artist gained international acclaim for his now-signature innovation of painting his subject upside down to emphasize paint’s materiality and unsettle conventional perception. Early series like Heroes presented monumental, fractured figures that echoed the psychological turbulence of postwar Europe. Later bodies of work, such as the Remic and Avignon series, reveal his ongoing engagement with memory, identity, and the passage of time. His work balances technical rigor with visceral expressiveness.
Baselitz’s works are included in major public collections worldwide, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Tate Modern, London; Museum Ludwig, Cologne; Centre Pompidou, Paris; and Fondation Beyeler, Basel. His enduring experimentation, interdisciplinary collaborations, and continued presence in leading exhibitions make his work highly sought after by collectors and institutions alike. Living and working across Basel, Switzerland; Lake Ammersee, Germany; and Imperia, Italy, Baselitz continues to produce work that bridges postwar history, expressive painterly innovation, and contemporary artistic discourse, reinforcing his position as one of the most influential figures in modern European art.