First US Baselitz retrospective in 20 years
June 21, 2018
The exhibition Baselitz: Six Decades, revisits the works of renowned German artist Georg Baselitz, who turned 80 this year.
On show from June 21 through September 16 at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C., it is the first major Baselitz retrospective held in the US in 20 years.
It features over 100 works by the renowned German painter, graphic artist and sculptor, covering the various phases of Baselitz's six-decade career from the 1950s to this day.
It includes a celebrated work that was controversial in the 1960s, the painting The Naked Man (1962). Depicting a figure with a long erected penis, it was seized by German authorities and led to a court case.
Further highlights of the show are paintings from his 1965-1966 series Helden (Heroes) and Fracture, which reflected on the identity of the German after World War II.
Baselitz: Six Decades also displays the artist's upside-down paintings that made him internationally famous in the 1970s.
Works on paper and wood, as well as bronze sculptures are also part of the Hirshhorn exhibition. The works are on loan from major private and public collections in Europe and North America, and the show was co-organized with the Fondation Beyeler museum in Basel, where the exhibition was also shown previously this year.
eg/ (with dpa)