‘Un Giorno Particolare’ Georg Baselitz

• An outstanding painting from Baselitz’s groundbreaking ‘Remix’ phase • A monumental tondo representing a synthesis of classical pictorial tradition and radical painterly freedom • Floating pastel tones and transparent glazes in powerful contrast to expressive black Georg Baselitz – An Essay When Hans-Georg Kern was born on 23 January 1938 in Deutsch-Baselitz into a family of teachers, there was no hint of his future international career. His hometown lay east of Dresden in Upper Lusatia. Baselitz once claimed that the ivory carver Leonhard Kern (1588–1662) was among his ancestors. Perhaps his fondness for the sinuous lines of Mannerist printmaking was a later reflection of this possible heritage. As a boy, Georg was a wayward character who was difficult to control, as he himself later admitted. His desire to leave the provinces soon took him to Berlin, where he began studying in the eastern part of the city. However, he soon moved to West Berlin because he found no appeal in studying in the GDR. He was expelled from the art college in Weißensee on grounds of ‘social immaturity’. In 1967, he enrolled at the West Berlin Academy of Fine Arts under Hann Trier. Over the next few years, he sought guidance in art history and through his travels, for example to Paris and Amsterdam. He wrote manifestos full of dark metaphors and allusions, initially in collaboration with Eugen Schönebeck. In 1961, he had adopted an artist’s name, derived from his place of origin. Not merely a geographical reference, but a programme: the reworking of his own life story and historical circumstances. The ‘Heroes’ or ‘Characters’ series, in which he processed the destruction and trauma caused by the Second World War, comes across as a first act of liberation. His artistic path diverged from the prevailing Informel movement in Paris and the emerging Pop Art from America. He chose to follow his own individual path. An example from these years is the ink drawing ‘Hirte’ (Shepherd) from 1966. With this and similar works, he laid the groundwork in 1966 for the phase of his oeuvre known as the ‘Fraktur-Bilder’ (Fraktur Pictures). The figures were divided, cut up and isolated as separate parts. Gradually, a distance emerged from the immediate reflection on destruction and a sense of disorientation. A change of location also contributed to this; Baselitz left Berlin and moved to the vicinity of Worms, to a wine-growing region on the Middle Rhine. Alongside landscapes, animal motifs such as cows, eagles and birds now also appeared in his works. During these years, he regularly produced prints, one of the artist’s specialities. He had begun in 1964 using simple means, but experimented in various directions throughout the 1970s. Etchings, woodcuts, overpainted prints and combinations of techniques feature in his work. He now sometimes worked in extensive series. This led to the creation, in 1970–72, of the seven sheets in the folder ‘Eine Woche’ (A Week). During 1974–75, Baselitz produced 36 etchings entitled ‘Bäume’ (Trees). The portfolio ‘Adler’ (Eagle) is particularly impressive. It comprises a spectacularly designed cover, based on coloured woodcuts, and eleven sheets inside, which demonstrate an irrepressible zest for experimentation. The motif of the eagle was chosen as a starting point to be explored. Depictions of eagles are among the earliest surviving works by his pupil Hans-Georg Kern. The motif remained an enduring feature of his oeuvre – right up to his later years. But regardless of Baselitz’s use of the motif, the eagle is a constant element of cultural history. In coats of arms, on flags and in symbolism, the eagle appears in countless variations. Of course, Baselitz was not the only artist to interpret this motif. Among the artists of his time, it was above all Marcel Broodthaers who, in Düsseldorf in 1972, staged an exhibition entitled ‘The Eagle from the Oligocene to the Present Day’, as part of his fictional ‘Musée d’Art Moderne, Département des Aigles’. In Baselitz’s work, the political and ideological implications of depictions of eagles play a role, though this is less obvious at first glance. For as a boy with a love of nature, he had been able to observe eagles, as well as other animals, in the wild. He was able to deepen his knowledge with the help of popular magazines such as the ‘Sächsische Heimatblätter’, which had been published since 1955. As an artist well-versed in natural history, he was very familiar with the eagles’ habitat and way of life, so that the ‘Eagle Folder’ contained a rich variety of depictions of this king of the skies. Subsequently, Baselitz developed a wide spectrum of formal interpretations of the motif: realistic, emblematic, reduced, abstract, wild, majestic. For the cover, he chose woodcuts featuring the motif of the wing, so that the pattern—which at first glance appears ornamental—can only be deciphered upon closer inspection. One of the most important paintings featuring the eagle motif was created in 1972. It is on loan from Duke Franz of Bavaria and is housed in the State Gallery of Modern Art in Munich. It was acquired early on and therefore played a formative role in the public perception of Baselitz’s work. The artist referred to this early work when, in 2009, he painted a tondo – that is, a circular painting – featuring the eagle motif. He chose an Italian title: "Un Giorno particulare", an association whose meaning remains unclear. However, Baselitz has frequently found titles in Italian that playfully link the paintings to an additional realm of the imagination. The commission for the tondo came from an Italian collector who was familiar with tondi from Italian art history. However, the German artist’s friendship with his Italian colleague Emilio Vedova, who had frequently created circular paintings, may also have played a role. The eagle is not the only pictorial element that demands attention. Above all, the vertical streak of black paint prompts the viewer to reflect. Is time flowing by between 1972 and 2009, when the tondo was created? The wild application of bright colours is likely a legacy of Willem de Kooning, the Dutch Abstract Expressionist. Red, yellow, blue and green are incorporated into the circle of the tondo, set against a background of white and grey, creating a bright, light colour scheme that lends the sky the vastness the eagle needs for its flight. The composition exudes a ‘brittle elegance’, even a virtuosity that Baselitz only allowed into his works late in his career. This virtuoso mastery is particularly evident in the paper works of the ‘Remix’ series. With a light hand, motifs such as a tree or a ‘hero’ figure are placed against the white paper background. The space behind and beside the tree is suggested with the simplest, most economical strokes. The bulky tree, which appears to be dead, rises from the earthy ground. The young Baselitz could, of course, have seen such trees after the war. He even hinted at a bleeding wound on the right. Yet the memory has lost some of its horror, which also applies to the ‘hero’ motif. A few achromatic splashes of colour, scattered throughout the drawing like shards of the past, reveal the catastrophic situation of so-called ‘heroes’, who are masterfully imagined. Testaments to a self-assured mastery. Siegfried Gohr P.S.: I would like to thank Detlev Gretenkort for a clarifying conversation. | 1938 Deutschbaselitz/Sachsen - Salzburg 2026 | Zeitgenössische Kunst | Gemälde | Nummer: 26x2236 | Provenance: Galerie Thaddeus Ropac, Salzburg, verso auf dem Keilrahmen mit dem Etikett; Privatsammlung, Kanada; Tajan, Paris 18.5.2016, Los 18; Sammlung Reinhard Ernst, Wiesbaden.

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