Georg Baselitz

Georg Baselitz
1938-
Elke Nude (Akt Elke)
1976
Oil on paper.
27 11/16 x 19 11/16 inches (70.3 x 50 cm)
Gift of the Baselitz Family.
© 2023 Georg Baselitz
2022.98
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Exhibition label: In 1962 Baselitz married Elke Kretzschmar, whom he had met in art school in West Berlin. "I never painted a portrait of my wife or any other woman until 1969," he said. "It was only when I started painting things upside down that I thought I could paint her, because everything then became more neutral. When you paint someone upside down it's difficult to give them an expression or at least a conventional expression. The result is something unpredictable." Baselitz's first images of Elke were straightforward representations. By the mid1970s he had adopted a freer, more economical style and suggested the figure with a few strokes. Elke does not pose for her portraits - the artist typically produces them from memory or using photographs.

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