Kunsthistorisches Museum invited Georg Baselitz (b.1938) to take part in an exhibition project that has the artist enter into a visual dialogue with the Old Masters. He selected the works himself – seventy-five of his own creations and forty from the Picture Gallery of the Kunsthistorisches Museum – concentrating entirely on the nude, the naked figure. Both the exhibition and the catalogue revolve around this elemental human state, and its fundamental role in European art. From the beginning of his career, Baselitz’s work has been informed by a pronounced awareness of art history, above all he was inspired by Mannerism’s break with classical rules. Insights into the history of nude painting, as well into the topicality of painting itself, emerge from this encounter of Baselitz’s works with historical paintings of an idealized beauty from Kunsthistorisches Museum. The carefully chosen juxtapositions open up a space in which one can reflect and experience the essence of painting anew.

“Baselitz – Naked Masters” will be on view at the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna from March 7 to June 25.

Read more: https://baselitz.khm.at/en/