PRESENTATION: Georg Baselitz-Die Pumps Sind Fals

Georg Baselitz is a pioneering Neo-Expressionist who rejected abstraction in favor of recognizable subject matter, deliberately employing a raw style of rendering and a heightened palette in order to convey direct emotion. Embracing the German Expressionism that had been denounced by the Nazis, Baselitz returned the human figure to a central position in painting.

By efi Michalarou
Photo: Contemporary Fine Arts Galerie GmbH Archive

Since his artistic beginnings, Georg Baselitz has concerned himself with his own person and physicality, in diverging degrees of abstraction and figuration. Notably, in recent years, the depictions of himself and sometimes alongside his wife, Elke, are influenced by the broader human experience of the body and its ephemeral nature. And yet, he has focused on no other aspect of the body more intensely than hands and feet, the latter beginning with the series of works titled P.D. Füße already in 1960. In the exhibition “Die Pumps sind falsch”, paintings, prints and sculptures of these body parts fill the space of CFA Basel, lending them an air of absurdity. Persistently questioning his role as an artist and the creator of his unique artistic methods and techniques, it is no wonder that hands play such a vital role for Baselitz. After all, they are our contact to the world, as well as a painter’s most important tool. Artists widely agree that representing hands presents one of the most daunting artistic challenges. The execution of works such as Dürer’s “Praying Hands”, “the hand of The Lady with an Ermine” by Leonardo, and the hand of God in Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam has often been regarded as a benchmark of artistic genius. Baselitz initially seems to take the opposite approach, moving as far away as possible from realistic depiction. In a more abstract sense, the hand of the artist functions as a distinct signature and embodiment of their unique style, a characteristic that sets them apart and makes them identifiable. On a more concrete level, the artist’s own hand is a constant presence before them during the act of painting, an unavoidable and ever-visible aspect of their creative process. But even as useless elements detached from the body, they captivate Baselitz with their vitality. While even de Kooning occasionally sketched studies of his own hand, Baselitz, in his work De Koonings Hand, appears to reference the former option, emphasizing the hand’s symbolic significance. In an era marked by the coexistence of figurative and abstract art, his challenge appears to be centered on the degree to which he can portray these fundamental body parts in their intrinsic essence or as symbolic emblems—just recognizable enough to avoid being mistakenly dismissed as mere abstractions. According to Baselitz, they represent nothing but themselves and are equally symbols of identity, like hands in early cave paintings or the fingerprint in a passport. And yet, the artist notes, his depictions of hands are increasingly accompanied by quotations from other artists, even if these are not immediately apparent to the viewer. Otto Dix’s “Portrait of My Parents” (1924) holds particular significance in various aspects. Its importance isn’t limited to the gnarled hands of Dix’s parents, resting on their knees on the sofa, but also extends to the overall composition of the double portrait, which repeatedly served as a template for Baselitz’s portrayal of his own parents. It was the omission of feet in this particular painting that served as inspiration for the artist to produce numerous paintings, drawings, and prints featuring feet. Edward Munch, whose feet are not visible in the famous portrait photo in his studio in Ekely, was also devoted numerous feet by Baselitz, as if to make up for their absence in the photo. At the same time, the artist also occasionally treats the all-important limbs with footwear, as is with the high-heeled shoes in Die Pumps sind falsch. In “Die Pumps sind falsch” the shoe-clad legs turn around themselves in a circular motion, not only to imitate movement, but to take it ad absurdum, so to speak. The statement suggests both the painterly level and the fundamental question of whether a pump can ever be right. Were feet made be put in pumps? Is there such a thing as a bare foot anymore? Baselitz doesn’t seem to think so—the heel has become a part of the foot skeleton. However, the circling dynamics in the picture also counteract an earlier statement by the artist himself: “I have made a philosophy out of the fact that my contact does not go upwards into the sky. In Christian Europe, that is the only contact. The downward contact—to hell—is feared. My contact goes downwards. I am a northern Alpine person, not to say a Germanic one.”

Photo left: Georg Baselitz, Die Pumps sind falsch, 2022, oil, dispersion adhesive, nylon stockings and charcoal on canvas, 200 x 150 cm, © Georg Baselitz, Courtesy the artist and Contemporary Fine Arts Galerie GmbH. Photo right: Georg Baselitz, De Koonings Hand, 2019, bronze fire-gilded, 159 x 53 x 2 cm© Georg Baselitz, Courtesy the artist and Contemporary Fine Arts Galerie GmbH

Info: Contemporary Fine Arts Galerie GmbH, Totengässlein 5, Basel, Switzerland, Duration: 9/12/2023-10/2/2024, Days & Hours: Mon-Fri 10:00-13:00 & 13:30-18:00, Sat 11:00-14:00, https://cfa-gallery.com/