Eagle

All German painters have a neurosis with Germany's past: war, the postwar period most of all, East Germany. I addressed all of this in a deep depression and under great pressure. My paintings are battles, if you will. (Georg Baselitz, 2013)

Georg Baselitz’s art owes much to growing up in post-war divided Germany – a country with amnesia about its history. He grew up and initially studied art in East Germany before moving to West Germany in 1957. He adopted an expressive style, reminiscent of early twentieth-century German Expressionism, and since 1969 has depicted his imagery upside down. On one level this was intended to make the subject matter insignificant and focus attention instead on the formal abstract qualities of the work; yet it also evokes the notion of the ’world turned upside down’ – a world of madness and chaos.

The eagle, the heraldic symbol of Germany, is a motif that frequently recurs in Baselitz’s art; the eagle also carries associations with the Nazi regime.

Julie Robinson, Senior Curator, Prints, Drawings & Photographs