Lot Essay
Kreuzigung comes from a celebrated series of paintings executed by Baselitz, seemingly based on religious themes. However, the present work epitomises the artist's deliberate choice of the most traditional of subjects, and inversion of them, resulting in an emphatic illustration of his ethos that "the reality is the picture, it is most certainly not in the picture" (Baselitz quoted in 1979).
"In 1969 Baselitz took the decisive step, which was to govern all his subsequent work with the execption of the sculptures, and adopted the inverted subject technique as a consistent principle. By doing so he compelled the viewer to pay attention not only to the content - the theme is clearly illustrated - but also, and primarily to painterly values. He was also committing himself to a much more difficult method of representation. He had to capture in his mind's eye an inverted image of reality" (Andreas Franzke, Georg Baselitz, New York 1989, p. 111).
In the early 1980s Baselitz specifically concentrated on episodes from the Bible, such as the crucifixion, the mocking (in the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, see illustration) and the crowning with thorns, as well as executing his series known as the Agbar Heads. Commenting on this group of works based on religious themes Andreas Franzke has remarked "Quite apart from their stylistic qualities, the works of this group reflect a highly private - and for that very reason all the more convincing - concern with Christian subject matter, dramatically expressed through intense colour. In some cases the colour tones take on a transparency unusual in Baselitz's work; this stands in marked contrast to the highly formalized treatment of the figures, which recalls the sculptural principles evolved in the wood carvings. All the works on religious themes are marked by statuesque presence, clarity of form, and large unified areas of colour. These devices are clearly employed to counter the naïve, story-telling associations of the motifs, with their burden of traditional iconography." (A. Franzke, op. cit., pp. 194-5).
Baselitz's vigorous and confident style of expansive brushwork is revealed to its utmost in Kreuzigung as he blocks out the planes of the picture surface with undiluted pigment, returning to add one, or on occasion, two further layers of colour to certain areas to fill the work with paradoxical movement and energy. The concentration indulged on the face, from the differing colours of the eyes to the open mouth, lend the work a humanity which at first glance is overshadowed by the bright and cheerful palette. In depicting the crux of the Christian faith in such a manner, Baselitz not only fundamentally questions the religious beliefs surrounding the subject, but also fiercely challenges the basis of much of the history of art.
"In 1969 Baselitz took the decisive step, which was to govern all his subsequent work with the execption of the sculptures, and adopted the inverted subject technique as a consistent principle. By doing so he compelled the viewer to pay attention not only to the content - the theme is clearly illustrated - but also, and primarily to painterly values. He was also committing himself to a much more difficult method of representation. He had to capture in his mind's eye an inverted image of reality" (Andreas Franzke, Georg Baselitz, New York 1989, p. 111).
In the early 1980s Baselitz specifically concentrated on episodes from the Bible, such as the crucifixion, the mocking (in the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, see illustration) and the crowning with thorns, as well as executing his series known as the Agbar Heads. Commenting on this group of works based on religious themes Andreas Franzke has remarked "Quite apart from their stylistic qualities, the works of this group reflect a highly private - and for that very reason all the more convincing - concern with Christian subject matter, dramatically expressed through intense colour. In some cases the colour tones take on a transparency unusual in Baselitz's work; this stands in marked contrast to the highly formalized treatment of the figures, which recalls the sculptural principles evolved in the wood carvings. All the works on religious themes are marked by statuesque presence, clarity of form, and large unified areas of colour. These devices are clearly employed to counter the naïve, story-telling associations of the motifs, with their burden of traditional iconography." (A. Franzke, op. cit., pp. 194-5).
Baselitz's vigorous and confident style of expansive brushwork is revealed to its utmost in Kreuzigung as he blocks out the planes of the picture surface with undiluted pigment, returning to add one, or on occasion, two further layers of colour to certain areas to fill the work with paradoxical movement and energy. The concentration indulged on the face, from the differing colours of the eyes to the open mouth, lend the work a humanity which at first glance is overshadowed by the bright and cheerful palette. In depicting the crux of the Christian faith in such a manner, Baselitz not only fundamentally questions the religious beliefs surrounding the subject, but also fiercely challenges the basis of much of the history of art.