Un giorno particulare, 2009

Georg Baselitz is one of the most prominent celebrated artists in German contemporary art to be included in the Reinhard Ernst Collection. Born in 1938 as Hans-Georg Kern in the village of Deutschbaselitz in Saxony and growing up in Upper Lusatia, he went to East Berlin to study art in 1956, but was expelled from there due to “socio-political immaturity” after two semesters. In 1957, young Baselitz resumed his studies at the University of the Arts in West Berlin and rediscovered himself torn between East and West, socialist realism and abstract art. Influenced by his teacher Hann Trier (who is accredited to the Informel movement and also features in the Reinhard Ernst Collection), Baselitz certainly dabbled in abstraction but ultimately was always associated with representational painting. His attention continued to focus primarily on human beings, as was apparent in his early work – referred to as his heroic pictures. His first exhibitions caused a scandal, as obscenity became Georg Baselitz’s trademark and placed him in the role of the provocateur, in which he still seems to be quite happy even today. In 1969, Baselitz began to turn his pictures “upside down,” which would become his trademark in subsequent years. With this simple method, whereby the artist would seek to direct the viewer’s attention away from the subject and content and towards pure painting, he once again acted in opposition to the usual style conventions and challenged the viewer’s perceptions. In addition to his inverted images, Baselitz also experiments with the negative presentation of subjects. This is where his work in the Reinhard Ernst Collection is classified. The falling eagle, originally a black figure that Baselitz often uses, occupies the center of the painting. With its colorful surroundings, the subject stands out on the white background. The work impresses with its use of bright colors and large round format and thus occupies a special place in the artist’s œuvre overall. Baselitz’s leading, albeit not undisputed, position in the contemporary art scene becomes clear due to his inclusion in numerous exhibitions such as the documenta V to VII, the Biennale in Venice in 1980 and numerous solo exhibitions in prominent international museums, such as recently at the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart.