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19/7/2006

Baselitz Remix

Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich

This summer, the Pinakothek der Moderne is showing for the first time an unusual and spectacular experiment: In a comprehensive series, Georg Baselitz is offering a completely new interpretation of programmatic works tracing his artistic development. Like a musician who "remixes" his most successful pieces with new stimuli and technical means, Baselitz is renewing the discourse with his own paintings.

Georg Baselitz, born in Deutschbaselitz, Saxony, in 1938, is one of the great figures of international contemporary art. His pictures are celebrated by critics and displayed in the leading museums of the world. Baselitz’ artistic development was not initially linear. In retrospect it can be understood as a sequence of breaks and turning points. Baselitz has succeeded in accepting the past and venturing something new without the need to disassociate himself from what went before. He has never been interested in responding to an internationally successful style or particular artistic direction. Instead, throughout every phase of creativity, Baselitz’ oeuvre has been shaped by the desire to explore the possibilities of painting in pursuit of the "new" picture. His early works were marked by an aggressive anti-posture, which resulted in pictures such as "Die grobe Nacht im Eimer" ("Big night in the bucket") (1962/63) and the emergence of "Helden" ("Heroes") and "Neuen Typen" ("New Types") (1966). After 1969, Baselitz’ quest led him to turn his motifs upside-down. The picture became autonomous, no longer dependent on external reality yet still figuratively describable. This way, Baselitz was able to assume a completely independent position between the extremes of abstraction and figuration. The much debated "painting trick" of turning the motif upside-down gave him the possibility of directing the viewer’s attention towards the painting itself and away from the theme, which consequently loses significance.

Today, Baselitz is putting himself and his pictures to the test. In his "Remix" series he examines - as no other artist has done before him - whether it is possible to paint ones own pictures again. The concept of a painting "Remix" is to be seen in a tradition embraced in the series by Monet and Munch, who sought to systematically explore a theme in all its nuances through minimal changes in colour, perspective and pictorial expression. Baselitz, though, is less concerned with exploring painting technique than with researching his own emotional and artistic attitudes towards his works and their themes. This concept works principally because Baselitz feels so close to his pictures, associating with each of them particular memories and emotions which he now recalls in the work on the "Remix" and queries in a new light.

Emerging from this are large-format paintings, drawings and watercolours that engage serenely in a dialogue with his work and biography with incisive ease and pictorial verve. What previously evolved on canvas only after a turbulent process and long work periods now unfolds within a matter of hours. Genesis takes place primarily in the mind and no longer on canvas. This radically different approach to how he works does not result in pictures that are better or worse, but simply ones that are new. Today, they can be right or wrong, a success or failure.

In the knowledge that he occupies a place in art that is very much his own, Baselitz takes up the discourse with contemporary painting and formulates an overarching position in which the tradition of great expressive painting is linked to a directly contemporary perspective. This discourse addresses most particularly contemporary German painting such as the "New Leipzig School", currently celebrated and feted throughout the world, and also pursues the debate about the "New Romantic in contemporary art". It closes the circle to his earlier preoccupation with heroes of the German Romantic in his pictures of "Helden" ("Heroes") and "Die Neuen Typen" ("New Types").

And so the "Remix" pictures are testimony to the artist’s maturing process, one that manifests itself in the incisive clarity of motifs and the sureness with which the paintings are executed. The pictures appear brighter in colour and richer in contrast to their predecessors. In exceptionally large formats, familiar motifs confront the viewer in a new guise. Splendid in their colour and pictorial impact, the pictures of the "Remix" series show that Baselitz has developed a distanced relationship to many of his subjects - one that makes a synthesis of well thought-out concept and spontaneous expression possible.

The Pinakothek der Moderne is the ideal venue for this first-time presentation of the new pictures by Georg Baselitz: It not only offers rich presentations of the different positions in 20th century painting; it also has a Baselitz collection which allows direct comparison between the new pictures and the programmatic originals.

Image: Orangenesser (Remix), 2005. Oil on canvas, 300 x 250 cm. Photo: J. Littkemann (c) Georg Baselitz

Further information:
Tine Nehler
Head of Press Department
Bayerische Staatsgemaldesammlungen | Pinakothek der Moderne
Kunstareal Barer Strasse 29, D-80799 Munich Tel: ++49.89 23805-253, Fax: ++49.89 23805-125
Email: presse@pinakothek.de

Press preview: 20.07.2006, 11.00 with Georg Baselitz and
Bavarian State Minister Dr. Thomas Goppel

Pinakothek der Moderne
Barer Strasse 29 - Munich

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