“[...] an artist has continuity in the progress of his work. Every year it advances, even for me it advances like this, but backwards, because I am reusing photographs that I have already worked from, and even paintings I have already painted.” 
–Georg Baselitz

The regular presentation of solo exhibitions of important contemporary artists, exploring specific aspects of their development of work, is part of the programmatic structure of Haus der Kunst. Examples of such include Travelling 70–76, which presented many of Robert Rauschenberg’s rarely seen works made of cardboard and fabric; Gerhard Richter’s Abstract Paintings, which explored for the first time this dominant work group independently; and the Ellsworth Kelly retrospective Black and White. 
 
In the autumn / winter 2014–15, Haus der Kunst continues this series, dedicating a comprehensive solo exhibition to Georg Baselitz. It offers an illuminating examination of works that span fifty years. This presentation focuses on certain motifs and themes that are essential to the development of the artist’s work. The exhibition concentrates on the more recent work groups and investigates their formal and thematic origins in the artist’s early work: the “Black Paintings” and the monumental bronze sculptures. In these paintings, Baselitz reveals an almost somnambulic mastery of his material. His fluid, circling brushwork exerts a magnetism in whose force-field the motif merges totally with the background. All the eruptive quality of his painting is still present, although it appears magically calmed, as if under a membrane. Vehemence turns into repose—but this is a repose that, far from superseding excitation, renders it all the more sublime.

Haus der Kunst is honoured to be hosting this exhibition in close collaboration with Georg Baselitz.

The exhibition opens on Thursday, 18 September 2014.

Current exhibitions:

Matthew Barney: River of Fundament
till August 17

Ellen Gallagher: AxME
till July 13

Stan Douglas: Mise en scène
till October 12 

Broken. Slapstick, Comedy, and Black Humor — The Goetz Collection at Haus der Kunst
till January 8, 2015