Estimate

Price on request

Session

12 November 2015

Hammer Price

Description

Oil on canvas in artists carved wooden frame
Signed and dated 20-IX-2000/ 30-IX-2000

312x255 cm (framed)
122 3/4 in x 100 3/8 in

Category

Modern and Contemporary Art

Additional Information

Video commentary by Sir Norman Rosenthal about this work:


George Baselitz produces most of the works in the series of "Hut ab - Die schoene Wiese" during his stay in the Italian region of Imperia in the summer of 2000.
According to Sir Norman Rosenthal, Exhibition Director of the Royal Academy of Arts between 1978 and 2008, this exceptional work by Baselitz is influenced by painters like Degas, Cézanne and Picasso; From Degas we have an assumed reference to the painting The Fallen Jockey in which Baselitz represents the jockey figure upside down, as characteristic in is works; From Cézanne and Picasso the allusion is in the rocks surrounding the fallen figure.
In this series of works, Baselitz returns to the canine thematic, barely visible but present in this composition. It may be interpreted as a symbol of the loyal companion or a representation of the wild side of both people and spaces depicted by the artist.
Inspired by a 16th century frame acquired during that summer, Baselitz produces a collection of hand carved frames in the renascence style, used to frame the works from this unique series.

Provenance: Gagosian Gallery
Exhibitions:
Outside. Gagosian Gallery. London, 2000-2001 (cat. p.35)
Georg Baselitz - Der Kubistische Hund. Kunstverein Braunschweig, Brunsvique, Alemanha 2001-2002.

Art hangs on a hook
Paintings don't bite, at least they don't nip you in the calf as dogs do, but they do do something, they can turn your head. A motif, on the other hand, may well bite, come rain or shine. Paintings with a motif which is turned upside down force the viewer to do a somersault, even to do a double somersault, if they are particularly good. Paintings securely hang on a hook, and whatever hangs down is a testimony to gravity. Whatever is depicted on such a painting, especially if it is upside down on it, doesn't hit the ground, it is just more visible and hits the eye. Even if something is painted in the centre of the canvas, such as a piano-playing Russian, for instance, it doesn't become a pivotal point for a feeling of vertigo. What you see, you see in certain ways, take it in, as it were; not as in a mirror, that is different. What has been taken in in this way, has the same effect as an empty plate after the food has been eaten. It is pleasant, freed from chaos and geometry. Paintings, however, feed the brain more than the stomach. Besides, paintings really like eating paintings best.
Georg Baselitz
Imperia, July 25, 2000
Braunschweig, Kunstverein, Georg Baselitz Der Kubistische Hund, 2001, p. 38, © Georg Baselitz, translation: Susanne Watzek, Nick Somers