#documenta 7

I have come to the conclusion that I treat fanfic the way most of my friends treat researching and writing a PhD?

Someone on here posted a photo of Neubauten with a very blurry interview underneath. All I could make out of the text was Blixa talking about controversial Austrian performance artist, Hermann Nitsch, and then the interview CUTS OFF.

Blixa said he encountered his work first at a German art exposition the band played... BOOM! That would have had to have been documenta 7  which they performed at with Salomé and Malaria! I checked the list of contributors, and there is Nitsch. And suddenly it makes sense, a few weeks later, why the strictly vegetarian Blixa and the rest of Neubauten ended up a few weeks later, ritually assaulting a pig carcass in the studio for Durstiges Tier.

Cue me spending the rest of the morning chasing down the links between Neubauten and Nitsch, and trying to find documentation and video footage from the exhibition. (Most of it is about Joseph Beuys, who already turned up in Vom Himmel Hoch because of his many links to Kraftwerk.)

And HERE, having finally found the rest of the magazine article, it turns out that Blixa seems to have discussed Beuys at length, and my god I would kill to actually hear that portion of the interview, but the idiots at CMJ decided instead to cut this and concentrating on mocking his black-clad unsmiling Teutonic appearance. Because clearly that is what’s important about Bargeld. Sigh.

Georg Baselitz Flaschentrinker (Bottle Drinker), 1981 charcoal on paper 24 x 17 inches (61 x 43.2 cm.)

Georg Baselitz Ohne Titel (Mann im Mond-Franz Pforr-Remix) (11.III.06), Unititled (Man in the Moon-Franz Pforr), 2006 feather pen and indian ink on paper 29 x 19 5/8 inches (73.7 x 49.8 cm.)

Georg Baselitz Untitled (The Last Self-Portrait I) , 1982 charcoal and pastel on paper 24 x 17 inches (61 x 43.2 cm.)

Georg Baselitz Doktor Brot, 1988 oil on canvas 98.4 x 98.4 inches (249.9 x 249.9 cm.)

Georg Baselitz, Orangenesser, 1982, oil on canvas 57 1/2 x 44 4/5 inches (146 x 114 cm.)

Georg Baselitz was born in Deutschbaselitz, Germany, in 1938. He attended the Hochschule für bildende und angewandte Kunste in East Berlin in 1956 and the West Berlin school from 1957 – 1963. In 1965, he was awarded a scholarship for a year’s residential study at the Villa Romana in Florence. Very early in his career, Baselitz emerged as a pioneer of German Neo-Expressionism, rebelling against the dominance of abstract painting, proposing in its place a very personal, expressive figurative art rooted in the art brut movement. In his early works, he concentrated on several figure types, including heroes, rebels, and shepherds. From 1969 on, Baselitz painted his subjects upside-down. He adopted this method to stress the artifice of painting. The artist is also well known for his sculpture and printmaking. Drawing upon a varied collection of influences outside of mainstream Modernism, including art of the Mannerist period, African sculptures, imagery rooted in the Art Brut, as well as the Existentialist art and literature of Dada and Surrealism, Baselitz developed a distinct artistic language.

  At the time these works were painted, Baselitz found himself surrounded by the new images of a younger artistic generation taking up German Expressionism as a spontaneous experience, practiced using clowns and checked patterns. Baselitz’s use of vibrant reds and yellows—even a harlequin motif—lends a theatrical quality to his work, while the depiction of glassware and fruit adds a playful element of celebration and bacchanalia.

Georg Baselitz, Ohne Titel (B. fur Larry-Remix) (26.VII.06), Untitled (B. for Larry-Remix), 2006 feather pen and watercolor on paper 22 3/8 x 15 1/4 inches (56.8 x 38.7 cm.)

In these two figurative series’, Baselitz reacts to the work of his German Expressionist predecessors — Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Emil Nolde, among others—paying homage to his artistic forefathers while simultaneously establishing distance from them. Championed as a leading exponent of German Neo-Expressionist painting, Baselitz displays a newfound freedom from ideological pressures with his Drinkers and Orange Eaters. Baselitz explains, “The ’80s helped me to rearrange everything; I was able to set up a whole range of ideas and experiences anew, which meant I was able to break everything down so I could make something out of it again.”(1)

Furthermore, Baselitz’s impulsive, tactile method of working creates a dynamic and almost animated surface, composed of fractured imagery. Thickly applied paint forms the rudimentary features of his figures, while his forceful handling of the medium emphasizes individual brushstrokes. Baselitz described his painting style for the Orange Eaters as “boxing with both hands, so to speak.”(2) He uses form, style, and color to shatter traditional assumptions—turning his subjects on their heads in order to impart meaning. Baselitz deliberately rendered his figures upside-down on the canvas, defying conventional visual interpretation. This inverted orientation frees his work from connotation without entering the realm of pure abstraction. Beyond the human form, Baselitz’s Drinkers and Orange

Georg Baselitz 6 Schöne, 4 hässliche Porträts: Schönes Porträt 2 (6 Beautiful, 4 Ugly Portraits: Beautiful Portrait 2), 1987-1988 oil on board

Eaters represent a critical time in history and an evolving ideology of liberation.

Baselitz’s work has been widely exhibited throughout the United States and Europe. Major retrospectives of his work have been held at the Whitechapel Art Gallery, London (1983; which later traveled to Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, and Kunsthalle Basel); Centre Pompidou, Paris (1993); Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (1995; traveled to Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC, and Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin); Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (1996 and 2011); and Royal Academy of Arts, London (2007). Baselitz has represented Germany at the Venice Biennale (1980) and participated in Documenta 5 and 7 in Kassel, Germany (1972 and 1982). Georg Baselitz lives and works in Basel (Switzerland), at the Ammersee (Bavaria, Germany) and in Imperia (Italian Riviera).

Skarstedt is working closely with the artist on this seminal presentation, as well as a detailed catalogue published on the occasion of the exhibition. Georg Baselitz: Drinkers and Orange Eaters will be on view at Skarstedt (20 East 79th Street) from May 11 through June 26, 2015.

GERHARD RICHTER

GERHARD RICHTER