Georg Baselitz, Painter to Stage Solo in Venice, 1938–2026

The painter, sculptor and printmaker Georg Baselitz has died, aged 88. 

Born Hans-Georg Kern in Deutschbaselitz, Saxony in 1938, Baselitz grew up during the second world war, witnessing the 1945 bombing of Dresden when he was only seven. The idea of destruction would later become one of the key themes in his artistic career. 

Baselitz began painting portraits as early as 15. He attended the Academy of Fine and Applied Arts in East Berlin, but was soon expelled in 1957 for ‘sociopolitical immaturity’ based on standards of the GDR . In the same year he enrolled at the Academy of Art in West Berlin, where he adopted the surname Baselitz after his birthplace.

In 1969 he made his first upside down painting with his painting Der Wald auf dem Kopf (The Wood on Its Head). The gesture would then become a staple of his practice as he became internationally known as a ‘neo-expressionist’ in the 1970s and 80s. 

In 1980, he first participated in the Venice Biennale representing Germany at the Venice Biennale alongside Anselm Kiefer. 

Baselitz continued to work until his death, one week prior to his upcoming exhibition opens at the Fondazione Giorgio Cini in Venice on 6 May and running through 21 September, showcasing his most recent body of paintings.