Galerie Michael Werner, Cologne
Hartmut and Silvia Ackermeier Collection, Berlin
Sale: Sotheby's, London, Contemporary Art Part I, 30 November 1994, Lot 38
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner

Basel, Kunsthalle, Baselitz: Paintings 1960-83, 1984, p. 50, illustrated in colour
Berlin, Staatliche Museen, Nationalgalerie, Altes Museum, Georg Baselitz: Bilder aus Berliner Privatbesitz, 1990, p. 65, no. 24, illustrated in colour
Milan, Galleria del Credito Valtellinese, Refettorio delle Stelline, Opere dalla Collezione Ackermeier, Berlino, 1991, p. 48, no. 19, illustrated in colour
Munich, Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung; Edinburgh, Scottish Gallery of Modern Art; Vienna, Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Georg Baselitz: Retrospektive 1964-1991, 1992, no. 21, illustrated in colour
Karlsruhe, Städtische Galerie, Georg Baselitz, 1993, p. 170, no. 10, illustrated in colour

Exhibition Catalogue, London, Whitechapel Art Gallery, Baselitz: Paintings 1960-83, 1983, p. 50, illustrated in colour

In an interview held in 1979, Baselitz stated cl🧔early that for him, “The reality is the picture, it is most certainly not in the picture.” (the artist cited in Exhibition Catalogue, Braunschweig, Kunstverein, 1981, p. 71). Inverting the subject as he has done since 1969 has enabled the artist to concentrate on the problems of picture-making itseꦫlf, drawing the viewer to see the picture as a painted surface rather than a recipient of meaning.

 

In Schwarzer Kopf the painted surface is alive with the vibrant application of paint, and the contrast of pure reds, blues, deep blacks and white emerging from the grey background. The colours in Baselitz’s palette from the late 1970s and early 1980s call to mind the chromatic brilliance and daring of Emil Nolde and German Expressionism, and it is noteworthy that this period in his work should also be influenced by his interest in linocuts and sculpture. Richard Calvocoressi describes Baselitz’s limewood heads and figures as being bullied into life: “The surfaces of his sculptures are left rough and scarred…Baselitz cuts and gouges the wood, in a manner related to the vigorous brushstrokes of his Munich paintings.” (Richard Calvocoressi, George Baselitz in Exhibition Catalogue, London, Whitechapel Art Gallery, Baselitz, 1983, p.19)

 

Comparing Schwarzer Kopf to a limewood head of 1979-80 highlights their similarities as well as emphasizing the differences in the way both media are experienced. The sculpture, by its size has a physical presence which the viewer can experience in his own time, by walking around it, and letting his eye wander around its outline. The painting, however, takes over the whole field of perception through its monumental scale. The head becomes an apparition, hewn out of its background, a strange reflection of the viewer in a mirror. The black lines which support it, like an inverted base, are a boundary crossed in turning the world upside down: “Stand the topsy-turvy world on its head…Everything below zero. That is all.” (Georg Baselitz, Letter to Herr W., Berlin, 8 August 1963 cited in Ibid., p. 32)