- Gallery Text
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Born Hans-Georg Kern in Deutschbaselitz, Saxony, the artist known as Georg Baselitz left East Germany in 1956 for West Berlin. The title of the painting references the artist’s birthplace and the notions of homeland so central to the tradition of German landscape painting. The recent Nazi past and the bifurcation of national identity following World War II, however, had rendered those ideas deeply problematic. At a time when many artists of his generation were abandoning painting, Baselitz remained dedicated to the medium. Openly rejecting the abstract styles predominant in West Germany at the time, Baselitz nonetheless destroyed both the idea and the literal depiction of landscape and the human figure — suggested in Saxon Motif by a stack of fleshy, disembodied forms — through his painterly process. Associating creative principles of disharmony, asymmetry, and fragmentation with his Nordic, Germanic heritage, Baselitz points here to what he felt was an “aesthetic of ugliness” particular to German art.
- Identification and Creation
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- Object Number
- 2008.207
- People
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Georg Baselitz, German (Deutschbaselitz, Germany 1938 -)
- Title
- Saxon Motif
- Other Titles
- Original Language Title: Sächsisches Motiv
- Classification
- Paintings
- Work Type
- painting
- Date
- 1964
- Culture
- German
- Persistent Link
- https://hvrd.art/o/329958
- Location
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Level 1, Room 1100, Modern and Contemporary Art, The Sixties Experiment/Multiple Strategies
View this object's location on our interactive map - Physical Descriptions
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- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 195 x 130 cm (76 3/4 x 51 3/16 in.)
- Acquisition and Rights
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- Credit Line
- Harvard Art Museums/Busch-Reisinger Museum, Friends Anniversary Collection, Gift of Dorette Hildebrand-Staab
- Copyright
- © Georg Baselitz
- Accession Year
- 2008
- Object Number
- 2008.207
- Division
- Modern and Contemporary Art
- Contact
- am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu
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- Exhibition History
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32Q: 1100 60’s Experiment, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 01/01/2050
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This record was created from historic documentation and may not have been reviewed by a curator; it may be inaccurate or 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