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72. GEORG BASELITZ Graphic Art 1965-1992,
9 September - 30 October 1994

The upper floor of the Sara Hildén Art Museum showed graphic art made by the German painter, sculptor and graphic artist Georg Baselitz (b. 1938 Sachsen, Germany).

The collection had been selected by director René Block from the Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen (IFA) in Stuttgart. The collection was shown for the first time in the Sara Hildén Art Museum in Tampere.

Georg Baselitz is one of the most esteemed German contemporary artists. The public knows him perhaps best as a painter whose figures are always depicted upside down. With this simple solution and by using traditional techniques and familiar motifs, Baselitz has been able to give his works exceptional power and appeal: the viewer suddenly starts to wonder which way things should be so that they would not be upside down. At the same time, the works offer a new perspective to the relationship between representative and abstract art.

Baselitz started as a painter, but he has also made metal graphic works, woodcuts and linocuts since 1963. The distinction between his paintings and graphic works is often fuzzy. Sometimes he has added paint to a print afterwards, making the work one of a kind.

The 81 works in the exhibition gave a comprehensive cross-section of Baselitz's production of graphic art from 1965-92. Metal graphic works, woodcuts and linocuts were also displayed, both as individual works and in series.

The aim of the selection was to provide insight into Baselitz's art in terms of content, composition and technique. Baselitz has developed his graphic art together with his paintings and sculptures. This reflects the consistency of his artistic development. It also makes his strict compositional solutions more familiar and demonstrates the interaction between the planned and the spontaneous, which labels Baselitz's entire production as well as the search for an absolute autonomy in his works.

Baselitz uses the same themes in his graphic works as in his paintings, namely figures, animals, still lifes and trees.

Level A on the lower floor showed German graphic art from the museum's own collection. Levels B and C presented some of the main works from the collection.

Catalogue:
Georg Baselitz, Druckgrafik 1965-1992
1994, 135 pages
Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen
Not on sale

Georg Baselitz, Grafiikkaa vuosilta 1965-1992 (Text in Finnish)
1994, 20 pages
Sara Hildén Art Museum
Price FIM 10

3,416 visitors attended the exhibition.