Cathy's Art Diary

Moving exhibition at White Cube Bermondsey of recent work by the late Georg Baselitz who died in April. I love Baselitz's work and the way he paints images upside down to concentrate the idea of looking so was moved to see these recent works. These were such ambitious, physical works for a man who was 88 when he died. I think my favourites were the black and gold works because of the contrast they set up and the nod back to icons and medieval pieces. These large works looked commanding in the vast white space. Closed 30 August 2026

Mind bending  exhibition at White Cube Bermondsey of new work by Georg Baselitz. I love Baselitz’s upside down pictures and this was a stunning collection from the 86 year old. I’d love to think that at that age I could produce such large, vibrant work. New touches were the addition of collage pieces, mainly stockings, which I wasn’t that convinced by, and a series of pairs of upside-down animals and birds. I love the pale, bright blue he is using as a background. The really mind bending works were two of people the right way up! I found myself flipping them in my head after his usual topsy turvey work. Closed 16 June 2024 Review Times  

Fascination pair of exhibitions at the Cristea Roberts Gallery of prints by Georg Baselitz. I find Baselitz’s upside down pictures intriguing and these two shows were no exception. Upstairs was a series of large linocuts called “Belle Haleine” made in 2002 and named in reference to a work by Duchamp. Baselitz resented Duchamp’s assertion that painting was dead and here he revels in the mark making. Each print depicts a copulating couple with the genitalia blocked out by a large white dot, thereby both hiding and highlighting the act. Because of the upside down nature of the work I did find myself playing hunt the legs at times. Downstairs were less racy recent prints of portraits, hands and feet and deers. I didn’t get the deer ones at first then suddenly I saw them, a bit like a magic eye picture. They felt like a whole new taken on “The Monarch of the Glen”. Closed 22 December 2023 Review Guardian

Monumental exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery of sculptural work by Georg Baselitz. I only knew of Baselitz’s work as a painter so I was intrigued to see sculptures and I wasn’t disappointed.   I was stunned by the fact that each work was made from a single piece of wood. Many of them included rings of wood around another structure which was impressive. I loved the way the surface had similar marks to his paintings. My favourite room had four huge works two of which showed groups of people which were arrange in very tender poses. The works were surrounded by the drawings which were part of their creative process. Closes 7 January 2024 Review Times  

Effective  exhibition at Palazzo Grimani in Venice of new work by Georg Baselitz. The work had been done in response to the city which I found amusing as the last time I saw an exhibition of Baselitz’s work was at the Accademia. In particular there were twelve paintings made expressly for the Sala del Portego, which hung on eighteenth-century stucco-framed panels. They were bright and decorative almost like posh wallpaper. In the side rooms were more classic Baselitz style upside down figures which played with the space. My favourites were the two shown here which were thick black reliefs and yes, the photo is the right way up. Closed 17 November 2022

Interesting exhibition at Cristea Roberts Gallery of two sets of recent prints by George Baselitz of hands. In one set of etchings “A Hand is Not a Fist” he draws his own hand in different positions. As he is known for his upside down paintings I did wonder how he approached these as hands could be any way up. I found there was a lovely directness to the works and that they were quite moving being an artist recording his own hand or means of creativity.   The other set “Mano (gold) and Mano (white)” were aquatints of hands emerging from dark backgrounds. They felt more abstracted and had a skeletal effect. Some looked like bodies with eh figures as legs. Closes 15 May 2021

Interesting  exhibition at the Accademia in Venice of work by Baselitz influenced by Italy and the Renaissance. Baselitiz is the first living artist to be shown at the Academia. The show is gently themed and included new work done for the space. I wasn’t sure I always got the Italian link in the work except in a small room of drawings based on Italian paintings, Although they were slightly abstracted you could see the link with the originals such as Virgin and Child by Rosso. I thought the double upside down portraits of couples, mainly the artist and his wife, looked good in the space and created interesting vistas through the rooms. They were more colourful than I remembered from a previous and it’s interesting how quickly your eye adjusts to the figures being upside down. Closed  6 October 2019