Installation view. All images via Thaddaeus Ropac Gallery
On April 24, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris, hosted the opening of the exhibition of the new works by Georg Bazelitz. The show includes a series of Bazelitz’ new monumental sculptures, several paintings, and a number of works on paper that are on display in the gallery’s Drawing Space.
More text and images after the jump…..
Dunklung Nachtung Amung Ding by Georg Bazelitz, 2009
Volk Ding Zero by Georg Bazelitz, 2009 – The white cup the sculpture is wearing resembles the baseball hat that the artist himself wears while working.
Two sculptures that are on display at Thaddaeus Ropac, Volk Ding Zero and Dunklung Nachtung Amung Ding, are a modernized take on the artist’s 2003 sculpture Meine neue Mütze (My New Cap). Both sculptures depict a seated human figure wearing a white cap, blue shorts and chunky black shoes. Both the old and the new versions are monumental in size, but whereas the 2003 sculpture is somewhat comical and toy-like, the newer versions assume a more pensive stance.
Ach by Georg Baselitz, 2010
Ach by Georg Baselitz, 2010
Ach by Georg Baselitz, 2010
On display are six new large-scale paintings depicting headless inverted female figures, perhaps inspired by the ancient dilapidated Venuses.
Mitglied der Academie by Georg Baselitz, 2010 – Presents a fine example of the artist’s extravagant manner, where the figurative takes over the non-objective.
On display at the ground floor of the gallery are twenty new watercolors by Georg Baselitz.
Ohne Titel , 2010 – An example of a rare monochromatic work by Baselitz.
Born in 1938 in East Germany, Georg Baselitz studied painting at the Hochschule für Bildende und Angewandte Kunst in East Berlin. In searching for alternatives to Socialist Realism and Art Informel, he became interested in anamorphosis and in the art of the mentally ill. In 1963, Baselitz’s first solo exhibition at Galerie Werner & Katz, Berlin, caused a public scandal and as a result, several paintings were confiscated for public indecency. Among them was the renowned Die Grosse Nacht im Eimer (The Big Night Down The Drain), depicting a masturbating boy. The criminal proceedings ended in 1965 with the return of the pictures to the artist. Since then, Baselitz’ work has been subject of the exhibitions at Sala d’Arme di Palazzo Vecchio, Florence, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Berlin National Gallery, Kunsthaus Zürich, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, Museum Moderner Kunst, Vienna, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C Musée d’art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Stedelijk Musuem, Amsterdam, Royal Academy of Arts, London. In 2007, a solo exhibition of his work was held at Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich.
The Big Night Down the Drain, 1963, by Georg Baselitz, the iconic work that shook the public at the artist’s first show. Baselitz said he used the erect organ “as an aggresive act or shock”.
Relevant Links:
The exhibition’s web-page: [Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac]
Georg Baselitz’s page at the MoMA web-site [MoMA]
