Georg Baselitz: Naked Masters

In Naked Masters, German painter and sculptor Georg Baselitz (born 1934) engages with Old Masters such as Titian, Rubens, Manfredi and Burrini. Invited by Vienna’s Kunsthistorisches Museum, Baselitz himself curated the selection of works for the exhibition, focusing exclusively on nude painting. Both the exhibition and the catalog revolve around this elemental human state and its fundamental role in European art. They also showcase the artist’s penchant for provocation; many of his paintings are displayed upside down, as he positioned them in the 1960s.
From the beginning of his career, Baselitz’s work has been informed by a pronounced awareness of art history―Mannerism’s transgression of classical rules particularly inspired him. Through the dramatic encounter between Baselitz’s nudes and those of his predecessors, captivating insights into the history of nude painting emerge.