BASELITZ’S BIG BOYS
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“Meine neue Mütze” (“My New Baseball Cap,” 2003). Photo: Jochen Littkemann, Berlin © Georg Baselitz |
Georg Baselitz (b. 1938) is probably best known today for his large-format paintings, which look abstract at first glance but on closer inspection prove to incorporate upside-down figures, but he also draws, prints and sculpts. The Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris is currently presenting a dramatic show, “Baselitz Sculpteur,” featuring his monumental wooden statues, all of them human figures, which he makes by hacking at the wood with a hacksaw and then sometimes paints, partially or completely. As rough and almost brutal as they are, these big, expressive creatures seem uncannily alive and are especially marvelous displayed in the expansive, high-ceilinged spaces of Paris’s modern art museum. A few of the artist’s paintings and drawings are thrown in for good measure. Well worth seeing. Heidi Ellison
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