Georg Baselitz

Georg Kern was born in 1938 in Deutschbaselitz (German Democratic Republic), from which he later derived the name he used as an artist. As a painter, sculptor and engraver, he is considered a crucial figure in the evolution of contemporary visual arts because of the boldness and originality of his expressive discourse. Although his art has sometimes been ascribed to Expressionism, his work constitutes one of the most successful attempts to create by destroying the orderliness of composition. Constant features in both his painting and his sculpture are the use of gestural violence and materiality in the raw. His figures are carved directly from plain timber, resulting from the artist’s intuition and reflection rather than from a programmed approach or a search for detail. In his art there is no representation or idealisation, nor is there Expressionism; his work is pure construction, vital and organic. The exhibition consists of thirty works–seventeen paintings and thirteen sculptures–with dates ranging from 1979 to 1997. The selection of the pieces has been made in close collaboration with the artist. The aim pursued is twofold: not only to present a very special retrospective exhibition of Baselitz’s work, but also to provide an opportunity to admire it and compare it with the IVAM’s collection of works by Julio González, some of whose themes, such as masks and materials, and forms of modelling, such as carving and wounding, receive a new form of consideration.