Silences

Georg Baselitz participated in the important revival movement that German painting underwent in the 1960’s. He disrupted heroic iconography and peopled his work with grotesque characters profoundly troubled by that country’s recent historical events. Starting in 1966 he implemented a radical break in his work: the canvas’ surface is fractioned into several images apparently without link. This work is one of the first of that series. It is an extension of the “heroes” series paving the way for another revolution in Baseliz’s work: the reversal of the human figure in 1969. Its structure opposes classical composition, and by choosing clashing colors he refuses criteria of harmony and good taste.

 

Drei Kopf mit Schnecke, 1966
(Three heads and snail); oil on canvas, 166 x 130.5 cm
Musée d’Art moderne et contemporain de Strasbourg

Deutschbaselitz, 1938 – Lives and works in Holte, Germany