ART CITIES: Saltzburg-Georg Baselitz

Georg Baselitz has had a profound influence on international art since 1960 and is indisputably one of the most important artists of our time. He shaped a new identity for German art in the second half of the 20th century; in reaction to the trauma and tragedy of the Second World War, he developed an artistic vocabulary which draws on the work of his forebears, whilst remaining unique and wholly individual. Since then, Baselitz has consistently renewed his practice through formal developments, often responding to art history and his own extensive oeuvre to develop his central themes through an ever-evolving, yet distinct, mode of artistic expression.

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Thaddaeus Ropac Gallery Archive

Created in the artist’s studio north of Salzburg, this new series of paintings and ink drawings features eagles – a motif that has resurfaced in Georg Baselitz’s oeuvre throughout his life are on show in the exhibition “Adler Barfuß”. Depicted in tactile, multicolored impasto, the works feature eagles rendered in gestural strokes, larger than life, hovering in an undefined space. Seemingly weightless, they appear to float against varying backgrounds of blue, in hues reminiscent of works by Lucas Cranach the Elder or “the beach paintings” that Pablo Picasso created in Dinard, in Brittany, in the 1920s’ as Andreas Zimmermann, curator of the exhibition “Georg Baselitz: Naked Masters” (2023) writes in the accompanying exhibition catalogue. “The eagles are perched or in flight, conveying a sense of the vigour with which they were painted. Baselitz uses spatulas rather than paint brushes, producing marks that recall ‘middle and late period Rembrandt and, even more so, pen and ink drawings by Hokusai. […] Filigree and powerful at once: a typical Baselitz paradox”.’ In two paintings, Baselitz depicts birds against a lighter, slate blue backdrop, grounded by a web of colour streaks that stretches across the canvas in zigzag lines. The eagles in these works prominently feature applications of cut-out plastic circles as eyes – a method that Baselitz has only recently adopted and which was inspired by Hannah Höch’s collages. The two largest works in the exhibition each show a pair of birds in flight on a monumental scale, their wings spread almost 3 metres wide across the canvas. The birds are depicted against a mountain range and thereby directly refer back to the artist’s first ever rendition of the subject. Painted at the young age of 15, one of Baselitz’s earliest works likewise shows two eagles in flight over mountains. Since the 1960s, Georg Baselitz has consistently renewed his practice through innovative formal developments, often responding to art history and his own extensive oeuvre. While Baselitz’s painting technique has been subject to constant transformation, his thematic vocabulary revolves around a number of key subjects that run through his oeuvre like a golden thread and notably include portraits of his wife, Elke. The return to the highly symbolic motif of the eagle in this most recent series integrates a wide range of historical and art-historical references into  his  work,  including  Rembrandt’s iconic depiction of Ganymede, in the collection of the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden, which Baselitz was familiar with from a young age. ‘The eagle embodies qualities that have fuelled the human imagination for thousands of years,’ writes Zimmermann, and its great significance as a heraldic symbol in German history further plays into the backdrop of Baselitz’s repeated examination of this subject.

Photo: Georg Baselitz, Sigmund ist von der Berggasse 19 in Wien nach 20 Maresfield Gardens nach London gezogen, 2024, Oil on canvas. 300 x 450 cm (118.11 x 177.17 in), © Georg Baselitz, Courtesy the artist and Gallerie Thaddaeus Ropac

Info: Thaddaeus Ropac, Gallery, Salzburg Villa Kast, Mirabellplatz 2, Salzburg, Austria, Duration: 18/5-20/7/2024, Days & Hours: Mon & Sun 10:00-14:00, Tue-Sat 10:00-18:00, https://ropac.net/