Georg Baselitz
25 Oct - 20 Dec 2007
GEORG BASELITZ
"Remix"
25. October - 20. December
Baselitz remix
If you say things twice, it is probably because you really mean them. This thought lies near at hand when you meet an artist like German Georg Baselitz, whose latest project is to paint a number of his old paintings once more.
The story is real enough. Half way into the first decade of the 21st century, around 2005, Baselitz all of a sudden stops hunting for new motifs, new variations, new stylistic twists of the profession he knows so well - painting - and begins to look back. Not because he is near the end of his life - the almost septuagenarian prince among artists is still going very strong indeed - but somehow looking back now seems more viable than the postulate of daily renewal. And as nothing can ever remain what it once was, there is also renewal in the concept of remix.
Remix is what he calls it - the fact that he, Baselitz, now begins to paint a great number of his early motifs once more. Paintings which have long been icons of a Germany in a process of change and reconciliation - Baselitz's career as a painter from the 1960's was in many ways nothing but a dialogue with the social heritage and the situation after World War II and Nazism - are now repainted, but in a more relaxed and brilliant form. It is as simple as it sounds. He now repaints pictures from the 1960's and onwards in the style of today.
This raises at least three questions. Is the painter the same as before? Has his art developed? And finally: what is the status of the motifs?
In a way all three questions can be answered together. Of course the painter has changed, because we all change over time. Of course his art has changed - for how could something so full of life remain the same. And the motifs? That requires a little more thought, especially when we use the word 'status'. Well, the motifs are the same, we can recognize paintings from 2000 or later as new versions of old ones, but how exactly is it that things have changed?
In the old days painters could choose a motif to escape from another. Three apples on a table of course present a task, but then again, no more than that. In a way a motif can set the hand and the eye free to do other things, because it is defined. With the motif part of the painter's duty - the depiction - has already been performed, and a different kind of painting may begin.
Georg Baselitz has always been interested in motif as opportunity. As an opportunity to paint. That is why he so often has turned his motifs upside down - in order that people should not be led and misled by the motif, but just use it as a basis for their fascination with painting, just as the painter did himself. And then take possession of the picture as painting, as gesture, as a vital game involving colour and space.
If the task is to reach the painting through the motif, the motif acquires a peculiar role. It is at the same time important and unimportant. It must not prevent the eye from travelling into the painting, but neither must it be absent. It is a very delicate balance.
How do you achieve that when you carry the burden of a great career? Baselitz has made a radical choice. He paints his own paintings once more, not as copies or variations - for the old and the new are not at the same level. The old ones were as they were, you cannot really change their reality or their factual being - they are because they were, because they were made. They were an expression of experiences, visions, dreams, fantasies, but then what do the new ones express?
Not the same thing - and yet. The difference is at one and the same time great - and small. Great because Baselitz of course has a kind of drawer with motifs already realized to choose from. And yet small, because he invests at least as much existential, that is painterly, energy in these stories, which lose nothing in being told once more. On the contrary: it is the nature of stories that a successful retelling enhances them.
So, has the painter changed? The answer is simple: he is still alive. That is what matters.
***
Es ist so schwer den Anfang zu finden. Oder besser: Es ist schwer, am Anfang anzufangen. Und nicht zu versuchen, weiter zurückzugehen[HH1] .[1]
(It is so difficult to find the beginning. Or better: It is difficult to begin at the beginning. And not try to go further back.)
Solidarity is an approach. The range of characters depicted by Georg Baselitz in his work are depicted with solidarity. But then what about (iron) horses, eagles, wolves and dogs, do they not count? They are everywhere in the pictures. So even better: The individuals or creatures which Georg Baselitz depicts in his work are described with solidarity. Individuals, creatures? Is that not too general, too impersonal?
The painter has turned to the past, which seems lost forever. He visits good old friends and acquaintances and possibly also enemies in his Remix collection. Complete and half couples, sawn-over and reversed, and dogs. This is what the latest works show: a collection of figures. Baselitz paints figures. And he does it with solidarity. Always. He is the painter who addresses a dead master like Edvard Munch forthrightly and straight out with the same empathy as when he addresses an anonymous schoolfellow or friend from his youth. He tries to feel whether they are still there. And the result can be grasped by everybody through the artist's oeuvre. The figure is the unifying principle. The figure lives on the paper, the canvas or is finished in three dimensions as a sculpture. Wherever we approach the work, this warm gesture flows towards us. The painter is captivated by his material. He is present with his entire consciousness in every scrap of the material and every line or brushstroke, which bears witness to close contact between painter and "model". This suggests loneliness, and possibly is so. But it is not imagination.
Man has many senses besides the five known from the time of Aristotle. Neurologists agree on at least nine, and in addition it is debated whether justice, morality, aesthetics and ethics are not real senses, too. Something would seem to confirm this. At any rate, when we glance at Baselitz's art. This simple approach suddenly seems so immensely nuanced. It is sensational that the brain is capable of making such complex statements as is the case when the artist puts brush to paper and e.g. draws 'a man'. And it often happens that the painter turns the motif upside down, which has made Baselitz world famous. The focus is moved. The goal is out of sight. Reality is totally changed. And yet not for the painter. The theme of "upside down" is a small step for the artist, but possibly a giant leap for mankind, if you can use this expression about art. To turn the figure upside down is simple, but also complicated. The brain is immediately switched off. And feelings and senses are awoken. The heart must be considered, too. Does not Baselitz's art indeed speak from one heart to another?
What indeed does solidarity mean within a human life? Baselitz shows solidarity with his figures. It is the individual that matters. He is one with his figures, when it comes to duties and responsibility in the history of the macro- as well as of the microcosm. And history is about time. What does solidarity mean? The word is derived from solid. The work is unbreakable, competent, well-tried and solid! "There was a time, not so long ago, that art was discussed in terms of right or wrong. It was quite complicated but it came down to this: Baselitz was right and Judd was wrong - or the other way around. In retrospect this was quite silly."[2] Thus the art historian Rudi Fuchs recently proclaimed an opinion relating to our time and contemporary art. A short time ago art was considered a statement. And therefore art could be judged, it could be right or wrong, although everybody knew that it was contemporary and as such was in the process of being developed. Clashes - also about pictures - have a value. But as a rule there are two or more losers, no matter which party is proclaimed victor. Politically speaking we know this from the never-ending war that runs through the history of Germany, America or Afghanistan. Georg Baselitz is not a historical painter. But he shows solidarity with both victim and executioner in his pictorial language. He creates a world of stories, which poetically and forcefully kick in the door to the human consciousness. As his heroes have always been able to do. Those maladjusted misfits, the artists, who challenge our views of what is up and what is down in our consciousness of the world.
We know the world and we can navigate in it. Consciousness is a different story. Seen in the perspective of right or wrong, it is even likely that Marc Chagall was right, even if his pictures look like a fanciful mistake. This is a silly view. For Chagall as well as Baselitz both show that consciousness of the known world is what their pictures are all about. Private family relations or figures bound by religious or anti-religious dogmas and wide open spaces. Chagall wants to fly over the city, holding the hand of his beloved. But Baselitz stays on the ground. He is in love with earthly things. Perhaps he paints figures resembling crucifixions. He is obsessed with matter, carnality. So much so that the figures are turned upside down. What change does this effect? Only this: That the doors of consciousness are thrown wide open. It is a spiritual journey that Georg Baselitz makes in his work. In this his art differs from that of the immediate opposition. It literally undertakes a journey. Makes everything very clear. Baselitz remix is also about something which has been made very clear, but the painter himself has no illusions. That figures. His statement is concrete and tangible, no matter which sense is used for the purpose. Baselitz's work is there, present, showing solidarity. Also with the audience.
It is so difficult to stop. Time, text, picture, film? Or, in short: It is difficult to stop for red. For the body does not necessarily react to light or colour. Green or red. What is the difference? Baselitz paints green. Crisp green and orange colours. And black and sparkling yellow on white paper. Blue and brown. The watercolour lazes, penetrates deeply or settles in splotches on the surface. Baselitz dares to do the wrong thing, act correctly, this is how it happens! It is so difficult to stop for red. It is easier just to go right ahead. This is what Georg Baselitz does - but he looks back - remix is a beginning.
Erik Steffensen
Translated by Helene Heldager - Wordmaster
[1] Ludwig Wittgenstein, Über Gewissheit, 471. Frankfurt am Main, 6th impression, 1994
[2] Rudi Fuchs in: Tal R, Fruits, Berlin, 2006
"Remix"
25. October - 20. December
Baselitz remix
If you say things twice, it is probably because you really mean them. This thought lies near at hand when you meet an artist like German Georg Baselitz, whose latest project is to paint a number of his old paintings once more.
The story is real enough. Half way into the first decade of the 21st century, around 2005, Baselitz all of a sudden stops hunting for new motifs, new variations, new stylistic twists of the profession he knows so well - painting - and begins to look back. Not because he is near the end of his life - the almost septuagenarian prince among artists is still going very strong indeed - but somehow looking back now seems more viable than the postulate of daily renewal. And as nothing can ever remain what it once was, there is also renewal in the concept of remix.
Remix is what he calls it - the fact that he, Baselitz, now begins to paint a great number of his early motifs once more. Paintings which have long been icons of a Germany in a process of change and reconciliation - Baselitz's career as a painter from the 1960's was in many ways nothing but a dialogue with the social heritage and the situation after World War II and Nazism - are now repainted, but in a more relaxed and brilliant form. It is as simple as it sounds. He now repaints pictures from the 1960's and onwards in the style of today.
This raises at least three questions. Is the painter the same as before? Has his art developed? And finally: what is the status of the motifs?
In a way all three questions can be answered together. Of course the painter has changed, because we all change over time. Of course his art has changed - for how could something so full of life remain the same. And the motifs? That requires a little more thought, especially when we use the word 'status'. Well, the motifs are the same, we can recognize paintings from 2000 or later as new versions of old ones, but how exactly is it that things have changed?
In the old days painters could choose a motif to escape from another. Three apples on a table of course present a task, but then again, no more than that. In a way a motif can set the hand and the eye free to do other things, because it is defined. With the motif part of the painter's duty - the depiction - has already been performed, and a different kind of painting may begin.
Georg Baselitz has always been interested in motif as opportunity. As an opportunity to paint. That is why he so often has turned his motifs upside down - in order that people should not be led and misled by the motif, but just use it as a basis for their fascination with painting, just as the painter did himself. And then take possession of the picture as painting, as gesture, as a vital game involving colour and space.
If the task is to reach the painting through the motif, the motif acquires a peculiar role. It is at the same time important and unimportant. It must not prevent the eye from travelling into the painting, but neither must it be absent. It is a very delicate balance.
How do you achieve that when you carry the burden of a great career? Baselitz has made a radical choice. He paints his own paintings once more, not as copies or variations - for the old and the new are not at the same level. The old ones were as they were, you cannot really change their reality or their factual being - they are because they were, because they were made. They were an expression of experiences, visions, dreams, fantasies, but then what do the new ones express?
Not the same thing - and yet. The difference is at one and the same time great - and small. Great because Baselitz of course has a kind of drawer with motifs already realized to choose from. And yet small, because he invests at least as much existential, that is painterly, energy in these stories, which lose nothing in being told once more. On the contrary: it is the nature of stories that a successful retelling enhances them.
So, has the painter changed? The answer is simple: he is still alive. That is what matters.
***
Es ist so schwer den Anfang zu finden. Oder besser: Es ist schwer, am Anfang anzufangen. Und nicht zu versuchen, weiter zurückzugehen[HH1] .[1]
(It is so difficult to find the beginning. Or better: It is difficult to begin at the beginning. And not try to go further back.)
Solidarity is an approach. The range of characters depicted by Georg Baselitz in his work are depicted with solidarity. But then what about (iron) horses, eagles, wolves and dogs, do they not count? They are everywhere in the pictures. So even better: The individuals or creatures which Georg Baselitz depicts in his work are described with solidarity. Individuals, creatures? Is that not too general, too impersonal?
The painter has turned to the past, which seems lost forever. He visits good old friends and acquaintances and possibly also enemies in his Remix collection. Complete and half couples, sawn-over and reversed, and dogs. This is what the latest works show: a collection of figures. Baselitz paints figures. And he does it with solidarity. Always. He is the painter who addresses a dead master like Edvard Munch forthrightly and straight out with the same empathy as when he addresses an anonymous schoolfellow or friend from his youth. He tries to feel whether they are still there. And the result can be grasped by everybody through the artist's oeuvre. The figure is the unifying principle. The figure lives on the paper, the canvas or is finished in three dimensions as a sculpture. Wherever we approach the work, this warm gesture flows towards us. The painter is captivated by his material. He is present with his entire consciousness in every scrap of the material and every line or brushstroke, which bears witness to close contact between painter and "model". This suggests loneliness, and possibly is so. But it is not imagination.
Man has many senses besides the five known from the time of Aristotle. Neurologists agree on at least nine, and in addition it is debated whether justice, morality, aesthetics and ethics are not real senses, too. Something would seem to confirm this. At any rate, when we glance at Baselitz's art. This simple approach suddenly seems so immensely nuanced. It is sensational that the brain is capable of making such complex statements as is the case when the artist puts brush to paper and e.g. draws 'a man'. And it often happens that the painter turns the motif upside down, which has made Baselitz world famous. The focus is moved. The goal is out of sight. Reality is totally changed. And yet not for the painter. The theme of "upside down" is a small step for the artist, but possibly a giant leap for mankind, if you can use this expression about art. To turn the figure upside down is simple, but also complicated. The brain is immediately switched off. And feelings and senses are awoken. The heart must be considered, too. Does not Baselitz's art indeed speak from one heart to another?
What indeed does solidarity mean within a human life? Baselitz shows solidarity with his figures. It is the individual that matters. He is one with his figures, when it comes to duties and responsibility in the history of the macro- as well as of the microcosm. And history is about time. What does solidarity mean? The word is derived from solid. The work is unbreakable, competent, well-tried and solid! "There was a time, not so long ago, that art was discussed in terms of right or wrong. It was quite complicated but it came down to this: Baselitz was right and Judd was wrong - or the other way around. In retrospect this was quite silly."[2] Thus the art historian Rudi Fuchs recently proclaimed an opinion relating to our time and contemporary art. A short time ago art was considered a statement. And therefore art could be judged, it could be right or wrong, although everybody knew that it was contemporary and as such was in the process of being developed. Clashes - also about pictures - have a value. But as a rule there are two or more losers, no matter which party is proclaimed victor. Politically speaking we know this from the never-ending war that runs through the history of Germany, America or Afghanistan. Georg Baselitz is not a historical painter. But he shows solidarity with both victim and executioner in his pictorial language. He creates a world of stories, which poetically and forcefully kick in the door to the human consciousness. As his heroes have always been able to do. Those maladjusted misfits, the artists, who challenge our views of what is up and what is down in our consciousness of the world.
We know the world and we can navigate in it. Consciousness is a different story. Seen in the perspective of right or wrong, it is even likely that Marc Chagall was right, even if his pictures look like a fanciful mistake. This is a silly view. For Chagall as well as Baselitz both show that consciousness of the known world is what their pictures are all about. Private family relations or figures bound by religious or anti-religious dogmas and wide open spaces. Chagall wants to fly over the city, holding the hand of his beloved. But Baselitz stays on the ground. He is in love with earthly things. Perhaps he paints figures resembling crucifixions. He is obsessed with matter, carnality. So much so that the figures are turned upside down. What change does this effect? Only this: That the doors of consciousness are thrown wide open. It is a spiritual journey that Georg Baselitz makes in his work. In this his art differs from that of the immediate opposition. It literally undertakes a journey. Makes everything very clear. Baselitz remix is also about something which has been made very clear, but the painter himself has no illusions. That figures. His statement is concrete and tangible, no matter which sense is used for the purpose. Baselitz's work is there, present, showing solidarity. Also with the audience.
It is so difficult to stop. Time, text, picture, film? Or, in short: It is difficult to stop for red. For the body does not necessarily react to light or colour. Green or red. What is the difference? Baselitz paints green. Crisp green and orange colours. And black and sparkling yellow on white paper. Blue and brown. The watercolour lazes, penetrates deeply or settles in splotches on the surface. Baselitz dares to do the wrong thing, act correctly, this is how it happens! It is so difficult to stop for red. It is easier just to go right ahead. This is what Georg Baselitz does - but he looks back - remix is a beginning.
Erik Steffensen
Translated by Helene Heldager - Wordmaster
[1] Ludwig Wittgenstein, Über Gewissheit, 471. Frankfurt am Main, 6th impression, 1994
[2] Rudi Fuchs in: Tal R, Fruits, Berlin, 2006