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Lot Essay
Moderner Maler (Remix) 2007 is part of a series which Baselitz began in 2005 daringly re-investigating and re-interpreting key works from his own oeuvre. In this painting a lone man is sitting against a dashed white background seemingly grasping towards a geometrical floor. The vibrant hurried brushstrokes of the figure acting in stark contrast to the structured emblematic Mondrian inspired geometry.
The work is part of a cycle of works which reflect upon Baselitz early pioneering paintings from the Heroes and Modern Painter series from the 60s, which deal with existential issues of identity in Post-War Germany: 'The Heroes paintings demonstrate Baselitz's affinity with German Romanticism, also representing, he has said, the defeated German soldiers who returned to the wreckage of their homelands after World War II. The subjects of this series are young men - fighters and partisans, poets and painters - with whom Baselitz identified. They are heroes and anti-heroes, existentialist figures from the world of Samuel Beckett, survivors in world of chaos' (D. Waldman, in "Georg Baselitz: Art on the Edge", Georg Baselitz, exh. cat., New York, Guggenheim Museum, 1995, pp. 36-37). These early works also acted as a figurative protest against the reigning abstract Informel Art in Berlin at the time.
From this series Ein Moderner Maler 1966 can be interpreted as a direct inspiration for Moderner Maler (Remix). Painted in a compelling gestural manner, the dishevelled main figure, drenched in colour, sits on darkened seemingly burnt and destroyed landscape, burdened by the weight of German history whilst searching for his roots in the wounded earth. Even though the composition and expression of the figure has not changed in its new, larger version there is a palpable liberation from the dense sombreness of the subject. Not only the shift to an overall looser more lyrical rendition but also the context has seemingly deviated from German history to art history clearly citing Mondrian's iconic grid of vertical and horizontal lines. But when looking closer at the composition of the floor the 'De Stijl' geometry seems to metamorphose into a swastika, highlighting the historic ballast (as in other Remix paintings) of Germany's darker past.
The work is part of a cycle of works which reflect upon Baselitz early pioneering paintings from the Heroes and Modern Painter series from the 60s, which deal with existential issues of identity in Post-War Germany: 'The Heroes paintings demonstrate Baselitz's affinity with German Romanticism, also representing, he has said, the defeated German soldiers who returned to the wreckage of their homelands after World War II. The subjects of this series are young men - fighters and partisans, poets and painters - with whom Baselitz identified. They are heroes and anti-heroes, existentialist figures from the world of Samuel Beckett, survivors in world of chaos' (D. Waldman, in "Georg Baselitz: Art on the Edge", Georg Baselitz, exh. cat., New York, Guggenheim Museum, 1995, pp. 36-37). These early works also acted as a figurative protest against the reigning abstract Informel Art in Berlin at the time.
From this series Ein Moderner Maler 1966 can be interpreted as a direct inspiration for Moderner Maler (Remix). Painted in a compelling gestural manner, the dishevelled main figure, drenched in colour, sits on darkened seemingly burnt and destroyed landscape, burdened by the weight of German history whilst searching for his roots in the wounded earth. Even though the composition and expression of the figure has not changed in its new, larger version there is a palpable liberation from the dense sombreness of the subject. Not only the shift to an overall looser more lyrical rendition but also the context has seemingly deviated from German history to art history clearly citing Mondrian's iconic grid of vertical and horizontal lines. But when looking closer at the composition of the floor the 'De Stijl' geometry seems to metamorphose into a swastika, highlighting the historic ballast (as in other Remix paintings) of Germany's darker past.