Georg Baselitz Retrospective at Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice

The Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice presents a retrospective of German artist Georg Baselitz (born 1938 in Deutschbaselitz), curated by Kosme De Barañano. The exhibition is organized around three thematic nuclei: portraiture, family portraits, and nudes. It spans Baselitz's decades-long career, condensed into four rooms. The show opens with woodcuts from the 1960s, where wood grain blends with ink, then moves to early painterly portraits with material surfaces and abstract-influenced lines. Baselitz's figures persist, influenced by Italian masters Pontormo, Rosso Fiorentino, Giovanni di Paolo, and Raphael, studied during his 1965 stay in Florence. His works often invert figures, as seen in upside-down family portraits and nudes that challenge recognizability. Drawings and sculptures also show this inversion, reflecting Baselitz's resistance to labels like Abstract Expressionism or Pop Art. Recent paintings from 2018 continue to blur abstract-figurative dichotomies. The exhibition follows a 2017 Philip Guston retrospective curated by De Barañano. Outgoing director Paola Marini emphasizes the museum's commitment to exploring artists' poetics across eras.