Harvard Art Museums > 2001.51: Curly Head Paintings Collections Search Exit Deep Zoom Mode Zoom Out Zoom In Reset Zoom Full Screen Add to Collection Order Image Copy Link Copy Citation Citation"Curly Head (Georg Baselitz) , 2001.51,” Harvard Art Museums collections online, Dec 02, 2024, https://hvrd.art/o/172846. This object does not yet have a description. Gallery Text Strongly identifying with art that explored existentialist themes, including the work of Alberto Giacometti, and inspired by Philip Guston’s virtuosic brushwork, Baselitz’s so-called fracture paintings of the late 1960s deliberately disturb painterly conventions of perspective, pictorial unity, and propriety. In Curly Head a pastoral scene is disrupted by the straightforward depiction of masturbation. The composition is interrupted by the irreconcilability of its three parts, in which tree trunks imperfectly converge with legs, a penis with an axe. Such experimentation at the very limits of figuration would lead Baselitz in 1969 to paint his motifs upside down in an effort, according to the artist, to emphasize painterly effects over narrative or subject matter. Aware of the coercive power of representational painting in East Germany, where he was raised and trained, and the dominance of abstraction in West Germany, where he moved in 1956, Baselitz sought to challenge both modes of representation. Identification and Creation Object Number 2001.51 People Georg Baselitz, German (Deutschbaselitz, Germany 1938 -) Title Curly Head Other Titles Original Language Title: Lockenkopf Classification Paintings Work Type painting Date 1967 Culture German Persistent Link https://hvrd.art/o/172846 Physical Descriptions Medium Oil on canvas Dimensions 160 x 129.5 cm (63 x 51 in.) Inscriptions and Marks Signed: on verso: G. Baselitz inscription: verso, German, in artist's hand: G. Baselitz / 67 / Lockenkopf / [symbol of three crosses in an oval] label: On stretcher bar: GEORG BASELITZ / "Curly Head" / 64" by 51" / oil/canvas / 1967 / MBG#4154 / MARY BOONE label: On stretcher bar: James Cohan Gallery / 41 West 57th Street New York NY 10019 TEL 212 755 7171 / GEORG BASELITZ / Lockenkopf (Curly Head), 1967 / Oil on canvas / 63 X 51 inches / JCG171 label: On stretcher bar: Anthony d'Offay 9 and 23 Dering Street New Bond Street London... / GEORG BASELITZ / Curly Head 1967 / (Lockenkopf) / Oil on canvas / 162 x 130 cm / Exhibited: Georg Baselitz Paintings 1966-69 Nov-Dec 1982 label: On stretcher bar: THE PACE GALLERY / 32 East 57th Street New York 10022 212-421-3292 / Georg Baselitz #26593 / Lockenkopf (Curly Head) 1967 / Oil on canvas / 63 x 51" (160 x 129.5 cm) Provenance Recorded Ownership History Georg Baselitz, Germany. Anthony d'Offay Gallery, London, England. Pedersen Collection, Denmark. Private Collector, Germany. Private Collector, Vancouver, Canada. Acquisition and Rights Credit Line Harvard Art Museums/Busch-Reisinger Museum, Edmée Busch Greenough Fund and Purchase through the generosity of Gabriele Geier, Edythe and Eli Broad, The Broad Art Foundation, Emily Rauh Pulitzer; and Melva Bucksbaum and Raymond Learsy in honor of James Cuno Copyright © Georg Baselitz Accession Year 2001 Object Number 2001.51 Division Modern and Contemporary Art Contact am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu Permissions The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request. Publication History Peter Nisbet and Joseph Koerner, The Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard University Art Museums, ed. Peter Nisbet, Harvard University Art Museums and Scala Publishers Ltd. (Cambridge, MA and London, England, 2007), p. 25 Stephan Wolohojian and Alvin L. Clark, Jr., Harvard Art Museum/ Handbook, ed. Stephan Wolohojian, Harvard Art Museum (Cambridge, 2008), p. 234, ill. Exhibition History Re-View: S118 European & American Art since 1900, Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 09/13/2008 - 04/09/2011 32Q: 1330 Mid-Century Figurative, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 08/11/2017 Verification Level This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Modern and Contemporary Art at am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu