Untitled
A pioneering figure of Neo-Expressionism in the 1980s, Georg Baselitz remains one of the major proponents of figuration in contemporary art. In this diptych—part of a larger series of ink and watercolor drawings referred to as "Visit from Hokusai"—Baselitz interprets a self-portrait drawn by the Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) on the right, while he interprets his own earlier image of a prone nude body on the left. Like Hokusai at the time of his self-portrait, Baselitz made these drawings when he was in his eighties, perhaps as a reflection on his own legacy: by using animated lines and playing with the distinction between figure and ground, he draws our attention to the process and language of drawing, and also its expressive capacities, which has been a hallmark of his long career.
Artwork Details
- Title: Untitled
- Artist: Georg Baselitz (German, born Deutschbaselitz, Saxony, 1938)
- Date: 2015
- Medium: Brush and black ink and watercolor on two sheets of paper (diptych)
- Dimensions: 26 1/8 × 19 13/16 in. (66.3 × 50.3 cm)
26 1/16 × 19 3/4 in. (66.2 × 50.1 cm) - Classification: Drawings
- Credit Line: Gift of the artist, 2016
- Object Number: 2016.314.1a, b
- Rights and Reproduction: © Georg Baselitz
- Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art
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