All posts tagged: Georg

Georg Baselitz, Pioneering German Postwar Painter, Has Died at 88

Georg Baselitz, Pioneering German Postwar Painter, Has Died at 88

Published by José Betancourt

Georg Baselitz, a preeminent painter of postwar Germany and an engine of the 1980s Neo-Expressionist movement that rebuked Minimalism, and who would later come under fire for his comments about women artists, has died at 88. His death was first announced in a press release by Thaddaeus Ropac, one of the galleries that represented the artist.  Baselitz exploded into the German art consciousness in the 1960s with a formal grit matched by tormented subject matter: his breakout “Heroes” series (1965–66) features bloated, blocky figures balancing on ruined buildings and toppled flags. Through his eyes, postwar German society appeared raw and taut as an exposed muscle. Next came his “Fracture” series, which sees axemen and prey alike torn into strips and stitched back into mythic Germanic forests—“wounded landscapes,” as he described them.  Related Articles Baselitz pushed figuration beyond recognizable form into abstraction—ultimately, and famously, flipping the medium itself: his experiments culminated in his signature upside-down portraits and landscapes, both genres apt for his unique dissection of masculinity. This visual vocabulary emerged in The Man at the …

Georg Kolbe Museum to Return Work to Holocaust Victim’s Family

Georg Kolbe Museum to Return Work to Holocaust Victim’s Family

Published by Jenni Sidey

A landmark sculpture by renowned German artist Georg Kolbe will be removed from public display in Berlin and returned to the heirs of the Jewish family who lost it under Nazi persecution. The 1922 work, Tänzerinnen-Brunnen (Dancers’ Fountain), stood for nearly five decades in the garden of the Georg Kolbe Museum and had become one of its most recognizable pieces. After an extensive provenance investigation, the museum concluded that the sculpture must be restituted because it is regarded as “cultural property looted as a result of Nazi persecution,” museum director Kathrin Reinhardt said. The fountain was commissioned in 1922 by a wealthy Jewish insurance executive and art collector, Stahl, who later served as head of Berlin’s Jewish community. He installed the bronze sculpture in the garden of his villa in the leafy Dahlem district, where it became a centerpiece of the property. Related Articles Kolbe, one of Germany’s most prominent early 20th-century sculptors, was celebrated for his dynamic bronze figures of dancers and athletes. Created during the vibrant cultural years of the Weimar Republic, the …