The critical reflection of his work against a new temporal background has always been a defining feature in the art of Georg Baselitz (b. 1938). In the past decade, the interpretation of programmatic works has assumed a more dominant role. Baselitz appropriates the original versions' significant features using a very different formal approach. The previous effect of the powerful ductus of the saturated opaque paint opposes the lucid transparency of the paint drippings in the "Remix" Series, which seem to liquefy the motifs and graphically dissolve them. The ease of this approach liberates the representation of content and meaning, which transposes the artist's thinking and work into a contemporary key. In this sense, the "Black Paintings", produced since late 2012, appear as a logical reversal of this formal approach, which invokes the remote character of Baselitz's work. The exhibition at Haus der Kunst presents these new series of works alongside black bronze sculptures that were created during the same period. The formal and contextual renewal to which Baselitz repeatedly subjects his own work is demonstrated retrospectively using related and complementary examples from the mid-1960s to today.
Support for the exhibition is provided by Gesellschaft der Freunde Haus der Kunst e. V.; Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Salzburg • Paris; White Cube, London; Gagosian Gallery, London and New York.
