Georg Baselitz
Avanti, 2016
- Medium
- Woodcut in colours
- Dimensions
- 100 x 50 cm
- Edition
- 5/50
Joseph Clark Collection · JCC-0011
About the work
Avanti places the energy of mark-making within the discipline of woodcut. The image carries the decisions made in a worked block into an inked impression, bringing cutting, surface and repetition into close relation. Created in 2016, it forms part of Georg Baselitz’s extensive printmaking practice, where the physical means of making an image remain inseparable from its expressive force.
About the artist
Georg Baselitz (1938–2026) was a German painter, sculptor and printmaker. Born Hans-Georg Kern in Deutschbaselitz, he studied first in East Berlin and then in West Berlin after his expulsion from the East Berlin academy. His work confronted the difficulty of making figurative images in the aftermath of German history and modernism.
The inversion of his subjects became a defining device, disrupting narrative recognition and directing attention towards the construction of the image. Baselitz also made forcefully worked wooden sculptures and an extensive body of prints. A recurring participant in documenta from 1972, he developed a practice in which the figure remained present while being subjected to fragmentation, distortion and material experiment.