24 Georg Baselitz Follow Untitled signed with the artist's initials and dated 'G.B. 25.IV.1987' lower right oil and charcoal on Canson 255.2 x 147 cm (100 1/2 x 57 7/8 in.) Executed in 1987.
Provenance Galerie Meyer-Hohmeister, Karlsruhe (acquired directly from the artist) Private Collection, Karlsruhe Exhibited Karlsruhe-Durlach, Galerie Meyer-Hohmeister, Georg Baselitz - Fünf farbige Arbeiten auf Canson , 1987, n.p. (illustrated) Kunstmuseum Basel, Georg Baselitz Der Vorhang 'Anna selbdritt' und die dazugehörigen Zeichnungen , 5 June - 29 August 1993, pp. 10 and 16 (illustrated, p. 16) Berlin, Contemporary Fine Arts, Hommage à Georg Baselitz , 23 January - 3 March 2018, pp. 45 and 61 (illustrated, p. 45) Literature Edward Quinn Georg Baselitz eine fotografische Studie , Bern, 1993, p. 30 (illustrated) Catalogue Essay A painterly manifestation of Georg Baselitz’ esteemed pictorial strategies, the present work is an expansion of the artist’s characteristic inversion technique. With purposefully rough brushwork and a bold palette, Untitled , 1987, belongs to a group of five works on Canson paper, each the same scale painted, prior to - and subsequently influencing- his monumental Anna selbdritt tapestry of 1987. These five works composed on paper present frontal, life sized and boldly executed female figures which the artist refers to as his ‘Female Giants’. Having been commissioned in 1987 by the priest Hans-Joachim Dose, to create a work for the chapel in Luttrum and Grasdorf, Germany, Baselitz composed a monumental tapestry Anna selbdritt . Titled after the Christian iconography of the holy Anna with her daughter Maria and the Christchild, ‘Selbdritt’ refers to the triad of figures. The immense stretch of needlework was however too large for the designated space and the artist instead selected another 1983 canvas, later named Tanz ums Kreuz , to occupy the room. The present work, executed in 1987 in Baselitz’ house and atelier in Castiglion Fiorentino, Tuscany, in part inspired the artist’s subsequent tapestry. Each ‘Female Giant’, is depicted with an accentuated head, large breasts, short legs and primitively executed feet. The five works, to which the present work belongs, inform the silhouettes of the religious icons Anna and Maria in the final tapestry. In his works of the period, the second half of 1986 and the early months of 1987, Baselitz uses painterly devices to emphasize the figures, the broad lines of darker pigment reinforcing the explicitly graphic elements that are unprecedented in earlier works. Combining charcoal and pastel drawing with oil on handmade paper, the artist was actively experimenting with new methods of creation. Baselitz’ constructed experimentation combines several of his esteemed pictorial strategies, inversion, bold tonality and expressive brushwork that is carved into the contours of the figures and forms. Having begun inverting his paintings in 1969, Baselitz actively interrogated his subject matter. Defying representation and seeking to liberate it from content, the artist inverted his image as means to stimulate the viewer to observe the picture as a painted plane, as opposed to a mirage of representational subject matter. Bringing the act of painting into the fore, the devices employed by the artist in the present composition, the inversion of the figure and the architectural shorthand of the gridded framework, elevate the prominence of the central figure. Declaring the autonomy of the image over the subject of the painting, Baselitz enhances the relationship between the image and its reference through the artist’s literal act of making. Enveloped by explicitly graphic elements, the protagonist is framed by the artist’s grid-like webbing reminiscent of the gate structure seen in the final tapestry. First incorporating these geometric frameworks in the late 1970s, Baselitz forces the central figure to assert itself against the graphic forms of the ground. Simultaneously supported and formally disrupted by the artist’s linear emphasis, the irregular network of lines interferes with the head of the figure. Competing with the abstract network of lines, painterly and transpar
24 Georg Baselitz Follow Untitled signed with the artist's initials and dated 'G.B. 25.IV.1987' lower right oil and charcoal on Canson 255.2 x 147 cm (100 1/2 x 57 7/8 in.) Executed in 1987.
Provenance Galerie Meyer-Hohmeister, Karlsruhe (acquired directly from the artist) Private Collection, Karlsruhe Exhibited Karlsruhe-Durlach, Galerie Meyer-Hohmeister, Georg Baselitz - Fünf farbige Arbeiten auf Canson , 1987, n.p. (illustrated) Kunstmuseum Basel, Georg Baselitz Der Vorhang 'Anna selbdritt' und die dazugehörigen Zeichnungen , 5 June - 29 August 1993, pp. 10 and 16 (illustrated, p. 16) Berlin, Contemporary Fine Arts, Hommage à Georg Baselitz , 23 January - 3 March 2018, pp. 45 and 61 (illustrated, p. 45) Literature Edward Quinn Georg Baselitz eine fotografische Studie , Bern, 1993, p. 30 (illustrated) Catalogue Essay A painterly manifestation of Georg Baselitz’ esteemed pictorial strategies, the present work is an expansion of the artist’s characteristic inversion technique. With purposefully rough brushwork and a bold palette, Untitled , 1987, belongs to a group of five works on Canson paper, each the same scale painted, prior to - and subsequently influencing- his monumental Anna selbdritt tapestry of 1987. These five works composed on paper present frontal, life sized and boldly executed female figures which the artist refers to as his ‘Female Giants’. Having been commissioned in 1987 by the priest Hans-Joachim Dose, to create a work for the chapel in Luttrum and Grasdorf, Germany, Baselitz composed a monumental tapestry Anna selbdritt . Titled after the Christian iconography of the holy Anna with her daughter Maria and the Christchild, ‘Selbdritt’ refers to the triad of figures. The immense stretch of needlework was however too large for the designated space and the artist instead selected another 1983 canvas, later named Tanz ums Kreuz , to occupy the room. The present work, executed in 1987 in Baselitz’ house and atelier in Castiglion Fiorentino, Tuscany, in part inspired the artist’s subsequent tapestry. Each ‘Female Giant’, is depicted with an accentuated head, large breasts, short legs and primitively executed feet. The five works, to which the present work belongs, inform the silhouettes of the religious icons Anna and Maria in the final tapestry. In his works of the period, the second half of 1986 and the early months of 1987, Baselitz uses painterly devices to emphasize the figures, the broad lines of darker pigment reinforcing the explicitly graphic elements that are unprecedented in earlier works. Combining charcoal and pastel drawing with oil on handmade paper, the artist was actively experimenting with new methods of creation. Baselitz’ constructed experimentation combines several of his esteemed pictorial strategies, inversion, bold tonality and expressive brushwork that is carved into the contours of the figures and forms. Having begun inverting his paintings in 1969, Baselitz actively interrogated his subject matter. Defying representation and seeking to liberate it from content, the artist inverted his image as means to stimulate the viewer to observe the picture as a painted plane, as opposed to a mirage of representational subject matter. Bringing the act of painting into the fore, the devices employed by the artist in the present composition, the inversion of the figure and the architectural shorthand of the gridded framework, elevate the prominence of the central figure. Declaring the autonomy of the image over the subject of the painting, Baselitz enhances the relationship between the image and its reference through the artist’s literal act of making. Enveloped by explicitly graphic elements, the protagonist is framed by the artist’s grid-like webbing reminiscent of the gate structure seen in the final tapestry. First incorporating these geometric frameworks in the late 1970s, Baselitz forces the central figure to assert itself against the graphic forms of the ground. Simultaneously supported and formally disrupted by the artist’s linear emphasis, the irregular network of lines interferes with the head of the figure. Competing with the abstract network of lines, painterly and transpar
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