Georg Baselitz

Georg Baselitz (born January 23, 1938) is a German painter who studied in the former East Germany, before moving to what was then the country of West Germany. Baselitz's style is Expressionist. His speciality is to paint his subjects the other way around to free the subject from its content.

Life

Born 23 January 1938 as Hans-Georg Kern in Deutschbaselitz, Saxony, in what was later to be East Germany.

Related Topics:
23 January - 1938 - Deutschbaselitz - Saxony

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His father is an elementary schoolteacher and the family lives in the local schoolhouse; in its library,

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Baselitz comes across albums of nineteenth-century pencil drawings - his first encounter with art.

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He acts as assistant to nature photographer Helmut Drechsler on occasional "ornithological shoots."

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1950-1955

The family moves to the county town of Kamenz.

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Baselitz attends the local Gymnasium school, in the assembly hall of which hangs a reproduction of the painting Wermsdorfer Wald (1859) by Louis-Ferdinand von Rayski.

Related Topics:
Gymnasium school - Louis-Ferdinand von Rayski

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He reads the writings of Jakob Böhme.

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At the age of 14-15, he paints portraits, religious subjects, still lifes and landscapes, some in a futuristic style.

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In 1955, he applies to study at the Kunstakademie in Dresden but is rejected.

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