Georg Baselitz (b. 1938) is a German painter and sculptor. Regarded as a pioneering German post-war artist, Baselitz embraces German Expressionism, recentring the human subject in German painting. Informed greatly by his upbringing in East Germany during the war, destruction and fragmentation play a focal point in his oeuvre: he once stated "I was born into a destroyed order, a destroyed landscape, a destroyed people, a destroyed society. And I didn't want to re-establish an order: I had seen enough of so-called order. I was forced to question everything, to be 'naive', to start again.” The artist’s work has often been the subject of much controversy and fame.
Training initially at the Hochschule für Bilende und Angewandte Kunst in East Berlin, from which he was expelled in 1957 for “sociopolitical immaturity’, he completed postgraduate studies in West Berlin and changed his name to Baselitz. Inspired by the German Expressionists amongst a wider variety of formal and art historical references, Baselitz’s signature paintings display inverted subjects; upside-down figures, landscapes and still lifes appear in abundance. He is represented by Gagosian.
In 2021, Art of Wishes acquired 'Schlafzimer' (2011) for auction at its third gala, courtesy of the artist and Gagosian.
