Angst (Korzhev) (Fear (Korzhev))

Painted in 2001, Angst (Korzhev) (Fear (Korzhev)) is a beguiling portrait by the celebrated German artist Georg Baselitz. Centred within the monumental tondo painting are a man and woman, rendered in short, expressive brushwork; the work draws directly from Russian artist Geliy Korzhev’s Anxiety, 1967, from his series Scorched by the Fire of War. Painted in the state-approved style of Social Realism, Anxiety depicts a soldier and a woman in muted tones. In his appropriation, Baselitz’s colour palette is similarly restricted if dominated by brighter tones. Like Korzhev’s painting the background of Angst (Korzhev) too remains empty and expansive, but, in his characteristic style, Baselitz has painted the portrait upside down. This inversion serves not only to disorient the viewer but, as a visual device, also frees the composition from its historical associations by introducing a veil of distance between the artist and his subject, and their shared predecessor. As Diane Waldman, the curator of Baselitz’s 1995 retrospective at the Solomon R. Guggenheim, wrote, ‘The upside-downness in Baselitz paintings has the effect of nullifying the significance of the figure—freed from gravity, it becomes one image among many, taking its place as part of the artist’s investigation into the nature of painting’ (D. Waldman, ‘Georg Baselitz: Art on the Edge’, Georg Baselitz, exh. cat., Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 1995, p. 72). Painting upside down affirms Baselitz’s iconoclastic tendencies, which he further reinforces in Angst (Korzhev) through his use of a round canvas. This form has its origins in Greek antiquity but was revived during the Renaissance, the period when many of the conventions of painting were established. Like these earlier tondi, Baselitz too eliminated any background detail. But if these historical paintings were created to emphasise a holistic image, Baselitz’s inversion purposefully obscures and hides the scene at hand. In doing so, he presents a radical challenge to painterly orthodoxy and by giving his viewers a new way to see the world.