'Baselitz,' a horror show on walls at the Hirshhorn

 Georg Baselitz, Zero End, 2013, Private Collection/Photo by Patricia Leslie

The first major U.S. exhibition in more than 20 years of a living German artist ends next month at the Smithsonian's Hirshhorn Museum

More than 100 paintings, paper works, and sculptures by Georg Baselitz are on view, some for the first time in this country.

Georg Baselitz, Oberon (1st Orthodox, Salon 64--E.Neizvestny), 1964, Stadel Museum, Frankfurt am Main

In celebration of his 80th birthday, the Hirshhorn, which hosted Baselitz in 1996, presents six decades of his works, "one of the most original and inventive figurative artists of his generation," the Hirshhorn says.

I'll say.  What an understatement.

What stands in memory are the sordid, artificial mammals Baselitz makes.  He wants to share his misery with you.

This is a horror show on walls. This is not a family fun house at the Hirshhorn. Take your children and Gramps at your own risk. I do not recommend it as a venue for a first date.  I do not recommend it as a venue for the second date, and if you get to the third date and want to end it all, why this would be a good place! Pretend like you love the stuff and watch him/her flee!

  Georg Baselitz, Win D., 1959, Private Collection


"I proceed from a state of disharmony, from ugly things," Baselitz is quoted, but, judging on the presentation, he is stuck on "ugly things" with broad, heavy brush strokes, bold colors, and "in your face" depictions of somber human creatures, many, ready for suicide.

The display will not leave you in a romantic state of mind.  It will not inspire or lift. It will leave you plummeting into Baselitz' pit of self-torture.  

American abstract expressionists influenced Baselitz who has come to exercise his own command of contemporary American artists, the Hirshhorn says.  He is frequently called a neo-expressionist which the Tate defines as " a reaction to the minimalism and conceptual art that had dominated the 1970s."  In Italy, neo-expressionists are deemed part of  "Transavanguardia" or "beyond the avant-garde." Ahem.

  Georg Baselitz, Fifties Portrait - M. W., 1969, Private Collection


Baselitz attended art school in Communist East Berlin and studied the "officially sanctioned form of social realism" until he was expelled in 1957 for “sociopolitical immaturity.” He continued his studies in West Berlin and helped revive German Expressionism, a form the Nazis denounced.

Dramatically affected by post-World War II Germany, Baselitz sees everything with a jaundiced, negative eye and seeks to upend order.  His works are testimony to that mantra. He was born in Deutschbaselitz, the name he adopted as his own in 1958 or 1961 (different years cited around the Web).  His birth name was Hans-Georg Kern.

Several of his landmark "upside down" paintings,  which earned him international recognition starting in 1969, are at the Hirshhorn.

Once he turned his first figures upside-down, Wikipedia says, Baselitz kept turning.

An object painted upside down is suitable for painting because it is unsuitable as an object, Baselitz is quoted in 1981. Some of Baselitz' works are unsuitable because they are unsuitable.

 Georg Baselitz, Finger Painting - Apple Trees, 1973, Collection of Udo and Anette Brandhorst


He frequently paints with his wife, Elze, to whom he has been married 56 years.

 Georg Baselitz, Model for a Sculpture, 1979-80, Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Ludwig Collection/Photo by Patricia Leslie

He was chosen to represent Germany in the prestigious Venice Biennale in 1980 where he took his first sculpture, "Model for a Sculpture," which was controversial because of its similarity to the Nazi salute.

Georg Baselitz, Model for a Sculpture, 1979-80, Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Ludwig Collection/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Georg Baselitz, Model for a Sculpture, 1979-80, Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Ludwig Collection/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Georg Baselitz, Model for a Sculpture, 1979-80, Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Ludwig Collection/Photo by Patricia Leslie
 
Baselitz has a reputation for thinking poorly of women artists, an opinion he reiterated in 2015 in an interview with Kate Connolly of the Guardian and earlier, in 2013 when he told Der Spiegel: "Women don't paint very well. It's a fact. There are, of course, exceptions....Women simply don't pass the test. (...) The market test, the value test."

Artnet News investigated. 

  Georg Baselitz, On the Right and Left a Church, 1987, Peress Family Collection

 Until 2014 the most paid for a "'Mr. Upside Down'" was $7.45 million for his 1983 Der Brückechor (The Brücke Chorus).

This price fell short of the $44.4 million paid in 2014 for Georgia O'Keefe's 1932 Jimseed Weed/White Flower No. 1 or Joan Mitchell's Untitled which brought $11.925 million in the same year, or the $10.7 million paid in 2011 for Spider created in 1996 by Louise Bourgeois. (It may be the same Spider by Ms. Bourgeois, 1996, across the Mall from the Hirshhorn at National Gallery of Art's Sculpture Garden! See it here.) 

And there are more women artists who outrank Baselitz in terms of money.  

Artnet News and writer Brian Boucher combed auction records to find out just how high Baselitz ranked in 2015 monetary terms: 932.

^{Perhaps the next time he comes to town, the artist will visit the National Museum of Women in the Arts and check out the art and the value of its holdings.  Baselitz could stand a little "pick me up."}

  Georg Baselitz, My New Hat, 2003, Pinault Collection/Photo by Patricia Leslie

   Georg Baselitz, My New Hat, 2003, Pinault Collection/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Georg Baselitz, Mrs. Ultramarine, 2004, Dasmaximum Kunst Gegenwart, Traunreut/Photo by Patricia Leslie

 Georg Baselitz, The Naked Man, 1962 Private Collection Based on "lewd and obscene content," German authorities seized several Baselitz works in 1963 including the one above, one of his most controversial which conveyed the artist's "discontent with German socialist policies." This fellow (in a coffin?) greets visitors on the right wall at the exhibition entrance at the Hirshhorn.

Baselitz opened in Basel, Switzerland in January before coming to Washington.

Tomorrow at 12:30 p.m. the Hirshhorn's chief curator, Stéphane Aquin who has an essay in the catalogue, will lead an hour-long tour of Baselitz at the museum. Meet in the lobby.

Below is the cover of the big (200+ pages) catalog for Baselitz with an interview with the artist, essays, photos of him working, full page color reproductions of his works, and a timeline of his life. Like the show, the book is arranged chronologically.

The exhibition is co-sponsored by Fondation Beyeler, whose director, Sam Keller, and the Hirshhorn director, Melissa Chiu write in the foreword to the catalogue that Baselitz exhibitions in the U.S. and Switzerland "are a rarity."  Quelle surprise! 

The cover of the catalogue found at Amazon, $52.36 (hardcover) or $35 (paper) plus shipping. I could not find the catalogue online at the Hirshhorn or at Smithsonian shops.

What:  Baselitz: Six Decades

When:  Now through September 16, 2018, from 10 a.m. - 5:30 p.m. Open every day

Where:  Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden on the National Mall at Independence Avenue and Seventh Street, S.W.

How much:  No charge

Metro stations:  Smithsonian or L'Enfant Plaza (Maryland Avenue exit)

For more information:   202-633-1000

patricialesli@gmail.com

Women's Museum celebrates black female art

 Mavis Pusey (b. 1928), Dejygea, 1970. Courtesy of Brock and Co. This piece debuted at the 1971 "Contemporary Black Artists in America" exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art. It illustrates Ms. Pusey's embrace of old, dilapidated New York structures and their architecture.  The museum label notes that early on, Ms. Pusey's work was frequently mischaracterized by museum curators as about "self" rather than the artist's environment she chose.


Looking for an indoor place to take your brood over the holidays?  Children (and adults) will be intrigued by what lies in front of them at the National Museum of Women in the Arts' new show, Magnetic Fields:  Expanding American Abstraction, 1960s to Today.  There discussions may be piqued by renderings which can trigger emotions and senses to include, but not limited to, humor, sadness, awareness, contemporary times, and whatever else one can detect and extract.  

I guarantee you no one will find it "boring," not the young, not the "don't bother me" teenager, nor the dragged-along Uncle George who doesn't want to go anywhere or do anything. 

With representations by 21 contemporary black female artists, the museum is proud to present the first U.S. exhibition by abstract artists of this genre.  Reading the labels and hearing the voices of the women who describe their backgrounds and experiences make attempted comprehension much more enjoyable.  

The artists' lives span 90 years, from 1891 to 1981, and several of the works are on public view for the first time.

They are "under-recognized" and "marginalized," says museum literature. The museum director, Susan Fisher Sterling, writes: "This exhibition shifts our attention to key practitioners who have not received their due" and are important to contemporary art history.

Named after Mildred Thompson's Magnetic Fields (in the show), a November 28 event will present two of the artists, Susan Snowden and Shinique Smith in public discussion. (See below.)

 Maren Hassinger (b. 1947), Wrenching News, 2008, courtesy of the artist. Twisted and torn pieces of the New York Times convey the artist's representation of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and its aftereffects which evoke "the poignant sociopolitical issues exposed in the wake of this natural disaster." Call 202-747-3417 and dial 205# to hear the artist speak about it/Photo by Patricia Leslie

A close-up of Maren Hassinger's Wrenching News, 2008, above/Photo by Patricia Leslie

 Howardena Pindell (b. 1943), Autobiography: Japan (Shisen-do, Kyoto), 1982, courtesy of the artist and Garth Greenan Gallery, New York. Using paint, collage elements, and hole-punched paper, the artist depicts her seven-month sojourn in Japan on a "friendship grant" and her attempts to save her memory after a serious car accident in 1979. Call 202-747-3417 and dial 209# to hear her/Photo by Patricia Leslie

A close-up of Howardena Pindell's Autobiography: Japan (Shisen-do, Kyoto), 1982, above/Photo by Patricia Leslie

From left Chakaia Booker, El Gato;  Mavis Pusey, Dejydea; and Abigail Deville, Harlem Flag/Photo by Patricia Leslie

 Abigail Deville (b. 1981), Harlem Flag, 2014, courtesy of the artist. Made from objects the artist found in Harlem and arranged to contrast and compare parallels between past and present/Photo by Patricia Leslie

 Chakaia Booker (b. 1953), El Gato, 2001, collection of the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art. Since the early 1990s, Ms. Booker has used rubber tires which represent travel, industry, ecology, skin and muscle as her primary medium.  Here the "regal pose and aura of a feline" is depicted in The Cat. The artist sculpts herself daily with wearable art/Photo by Patricia Leslie

The name of Barbara Chase-Riboud (b. 1939), Zanzibar/Black, 1974-75, may be better known as a poet and author who wrote Sally Hemings, 1979. This is courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery and "exemplifies the artist's interest in developing monuments dedicated to transformative individuals and places."/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Sylvia Snowden (b. 1942), June 12, 1992 is the wedding anniversary of Ms. Snowden's parents who, with Howard University, the artist credits for helping her succeed in the art world.  This was part of a series which was on exhibition at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in 1992 and is hung courtesy of the artist. Call 202-747-3417 and dial 214# to hear Ms. Snowden speak of this work/Photo by Patricia Leslie

 Shinique Smith (b. 1971), Bale Variant No. 0017, 2009, Denver Art Museum Collection.  Fabric, wood, ink, twine and ribbon comprise the sculpture. The artist weaves her own clothing and pieces she finds "to visualize the tension of accumulation and consumption."/Photo by Patricia Leslie

At the exhibition's opening Virginia Treanor, NMWA associate curator, called the museum "a natural platform for an exhibit like this." Several of the artists were born in Washington and Baltimore where some reside. Some graduated from Howard University.

"This is not a survey," Ms. Treanor emphasized in her opening remarks, or "meant to be comprehensive."

Curators were Melissa Messina and Erin Dziedzic, director of curatorial affairs at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City, Missouri. 

In conjunction with the show, Sylvia Snowden and Shinique Smith will speak at the museum November 28 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Guests pay $25 ($15, members, seniors, and students) to mingle with the artists, see the exhibition and other collections, and enjoy food and beverages. It is close to a sellout. Make required reservations here.

A 144-paged illustrated catalogue is available in the museum gift shop and online.

Other artists in the show are Candida Alvarez, Betty Blayton, Lilian Thomas Burwell, Nanette Carter, Deborah Dancy, Mary Lovelace O'Neal, Gilda Snowden, Kianja Strobert, Jennie C. Jones, Evangeline "EJ" Montgomery, Alma Woodsey Thomas, and Brenna Youngblood.


What: Magnetic Fields: Expanding American Abstraction, 1960s to Today

When:  Now through January 21, 2018. Mondays through Saturdays, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.; Sundays, 12 - 5 p.m. 

Where:  The National Museum of Women in the Arts, 1250 New York Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20005

Admission: Free on the first Sunday of the month (December 3, 2017 and January 7, 2018 for this show) or $10, adults; $8, seniors and students; and always free for members and children, 18 and under.

For more information: 202-783-5000

Metro station: Metro Center. Exit at 13th Street and walk two blocks north.


patricialesli@gmail.com