Georg Baselitz

In my left hand I had a photograph of The Big Night Down the Drain and [I] pretty much stuck to the formal aspects of the painting, although of course I also knew what things had been like back then, what the mood was, what the situation was. I didn’t want to invoke that situation—in some kind of a soliloquy-like old magic. I just wanted to improve that picture, in its suffering or what it has suffered; I wanted to speed it up.
—Georg Baselitz

Gagosian is pleased to present an exhibition of new paintings and drawings by Georg Baselitz from his ongoing Remix series.

Baselitz’s long and challenging career is marked by intense periods of activity, usually culminating in a heroic masterpiece or group of masterworks, followed by startling renewal and rethinking of his subject. A traditional artisan, he works in equally traditional media—painting, drawing, printmaking, and wood sculpture—often on a monumental scale.

In the recent Remix Paintings, Baselitz has revisited the most provocative aspects of his own history. Part of an ongoing series, these new works reexamine his iconic painting Die große Nacht im Eimer (The Big Night Down the Drain) (1962–63), now in the collection of the Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany. In this work, Baselitz depicts a faceless, masturbating boy whose identity is unclear. First exhibited in Berlin in 1963, it was confiscated by the police due to its provocative content. Although almost two decades had passed since the end of World War II, the profound personal impact of both the historical and psychological legacies of the war led Baselitz to create a startling image to reflect his sentiments that Germany was a country without direction, as it continued to struggle with its postwar economic and spiritual depression.