“LA JERARQUÍA DE ARRIBA Y DE ABAJO ES EN CUALQUIER CASO SÓLO UN PACTO AL QUE NOS HEMOS ACOSTUMBRADO”.
It is his own, fragmented nude body that Baselitz depicts here. The legs indicate strides and the extremely fine line of white steps over the feet marks a staircase. In combination with the title, the reference to Duchamp’s famous painting Nude Descending a Staircase (1912, Philadelphia) is apparent: a work that is for all intents and purposes the iconic marker of the departure from the picture, from painting. Baselitz revises this step, unacceptable to him, by incorporating the motif and thereby refuting Duchamp in painting.
Georg Baselitz, Descending with Marcel, 2016, Oil on canvas, 307 × 257 cm. Private collection © Georg Baselitz 2023, photo: Jochen Littkemann, Berlin
DEAR MARCEL DUCHAMP, YOU STOLE THAT FROM PICASSO!
The title sounds humorous, but Baselitz takes the matter very seriously: ‘Processing through an opponent’ is what he says about his conflict with Duchamp. Baselitz occupies the other’s pictorial motif and develops it by painterly means in order to demonstrate that painting cannot be destroyed. Triple appearance in full figure. The glow of the feet suggests the painter approaching from spatial and temporal depths. It is as if a picture like this provided irrevocable evidence for a claim to eternity that painting has had since mythical prehistoric times.
Georg Baselitz, Dear Marcel Duchamp, You Stole That from Picasso!, 2016, Oil on canvas, 410 × 305 cm. Private collection. © Georg Baselitz 2023, photo: Jochen Littkemann, Berlin
Time passes, as Baselitz indicates in his title. In this picture, the painter picks up on his depictions of the seated nude Elke from 1976 – four decades! In the larger format, the strong colouration of the original is now extremely reduced. The grey shades of the figure are mixed with Indian yellow. A strange, sallow light is emitted. Is the figure in the picture appearing or about to disappear? Whence or whereto? Fundamentals are in limbo. Fragility and monumentality enter a precarious union.
Georg Baselitz, Like It Was Before, 2016, Oil on canvas, 300 × 250 cm. Private collection © Georg Baselitz 2023, photo: Jochen Littkemann, Berlin
El Kunsthistorisches Museum invitó a Georg Baselitz (n. 1938) a participar en un proyecto de exposición en el que el artista entabla un diálogo visual con Cranach, Altdorfer, Baldung Grien, Parmigianino, Correggio, Tiziano y Rubens, así como con los manieristas de la corte. del emperador Rodolfo II.
Él mismo seleccionó las obras -unas ochenta de sus propias creaciones y cuarenta de la Galería de imágenes del Kunsthistorisches Museum-, concentrándose por completo en el desnudo, la figura desnuda. La exposición arroja luz sobre esta condición humana elemental, que siempre ha sido un tema central del arte europeo.
Since the spring of 2020, a new, surprising element has entered Baselitz’s pictorial world – he inserts nylon stockings into his paintings now. Baselitz was inspired by Dada artist Kurt Schwitters and Hannah Höch’s photomontages.
Nylon stockings were fetishized in the postwar period and also played an important role in film, for example, Sophia Loren in the film “Ieri, oggi e domani” by Vittorio De Sica (1963), a director Baselitz greatly values.
Georg Baselitz, Nylon Parade, 2022, Oil, dispersion adhesive, and nylon stockings on canvas, 300 × 400 cm. Private collection © Georg Baselitz 2023, photo: Jochen Littkemann, Berlin
Las obras de Baselitz presentadas en la exposición trazan una línea desde principios de la década de 1970 hasta la actualidad Desde sus primeros trabajos, Baselitz ha mostrado una marcada conciencia de la historia del arte en sus obras, estando particularmente impresionado por el manierismo y su desviación de la norma. Este encuentro entre las obras de Georg Baselitz y las pinturas históricas de figuras de belleza ideal de la colección del Kunsthistorisches Museum revela interesantes conocimientos sobre la historia de los retratos de desnudos, así como sobre la actualidad que la pintura misma aún tiene. De esta manera, el artista plantea cuestiones fundamentales que nos tocan a todos y abre un espacio de experiencias desafiantes donde estas obras se encuentran.
Kunsthistorisches Museum de Viena
Hata el 25 de junio.
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