Georg Baselitz 1977-1992 @ Michael Werner Gallery
As last Saturday we were honoured by the appearance of the sun and its warm golden spring rays, I decided to go for a walk. Me being me, I needed a destination so I decided to check out what is new in terms of art exhibitions. I will not mention which website I visited because they are not sponsoring me but I will give a hint, it started with Time and ended with Out. I really doubt anyone will know what I am talking about. Browsing through the recently opened shows, I stumbled upon the Michael Werner Gallery. It recently opened it doors for a Gerg Baselitz exhibition and it seemed like a good place to start the weekend.
If you don't know, as I didn't, Gerg Baselitz is a German borne painter, originally from Deutschbaselitz. His is well known for his inverted portraits, landscapes and still-life paintings, with a long cultivated subversive approach to figurative images. His exhibitions have been in galleries around the world, from New York to Edinburgh and back. However, I was not aware of any of this to my shame so for the time being, in order to understand where I am going with my explanation, you need you to clear your mind.
In a incredible row of Georgian hoses, at number 22, Upper Brooke Street, awaited the Michael Werner Gallery. Buzzing the shiny golden bell, pushing and pulling on the door until I figured out that it required me to put my back into it, I enter the quite, three level terraced gallery. You know that moment when you realise you are alone in a place and it feels like the time when the parents are out and you have the entire house to yourself for the first time?! That is how the place felt, not empty but quiet. I was the only person there and I think I should be happy for it as I got to experience the work in my own time. The exhibition stretches over two of the three levels and it starts at first floor with the four-part work Birnbaum I (Pear Tree I) from 1978. Displayed over two facing walls, you find yourself in a large white room, overcome by an abundance of colours and brush strokes.
When looking at those four oil and tempera pieces, it take a while to find your place within them, they feel uncomfortable, in a pleasant way. They encourage you to analyse what you see by flipping your perspective upside down and setting up the question, 'What do you see now?' When looking really close for the first time, my mind quickly went back to the impact that World War II had and how it can still be seen in the artist's work, although since the 60s his work departed from war themes. The broken branches and the twisted shapes, which I struggled to associate with trees from any angle at the beginning, lead me to think they are a representation of the uneven, fragmented connections of the post war era. Their resplendence to the Nazi swastika along with the powerful red background and the really agressive brush strokes provoke a feeling of disturbance. However, the Birnbaum I, in its upside down state, could also be referencing the origins of the symbol and its wider use in religions such as Hinduism or Buddhism as well as its original Sanskrit meaning of 'good fortune' (svastika). When placing the work in its historic context at the end of the 1970s, with all the events which were taking place in Europe such as the EU growth, newly found western political stability, economic growth, you might think that the power of Pear Tree I stands in its representation of hope rather than torment. Furthermore, the artist was in a great place at that moment in his life with a new academic position at Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Karlsruhe starting in 1977, his new studio in Florence and his work entering an abstract scriptural trend. Therefore, although at first site, for me, the composition seemed to be a melancholic one, after briefly understanding the context of the work, my view, just like the work, turned 180. Delivered with determination, through aggressive strokes and intense use of colour, the turn might have been there all along to be experienced. Such an effect could be the twist that the upside down style has to offer, a new perspective. In this way, maybe it is not the painting which is orientated the wrong way round but everyone else is upside down and the painting is the right way up. Such artists as Baselitz, through their work, redefine the way in which we understand the world. Through the controversy and debate it initiate, the work tends to polarise the people around it and provoke praises or instigate frustration. It is this polarisation which I think gives it power, defining it as great pieces of art because it do not leave people indifferent. Through the inversion of perspective we are not simply asked to turn our gaze upside down but to turn it inside out. As we fight to rotate the image the right way up in our minds, we are placed in the unfamiliar position of searching for more in order to make sense of it and that leads to a further understanding of the viewer not only of the image being viewed.
Progressing into the second room, we are welcomed by a wall of charcoal sketches and another set of expressive images, Akt und Flasche (Nude and Bottle) from 1977. The Nude, with its a buckled figure defined by shades of grey, is again playing with the perception through its orientation which, in this case can, depicts a backward falling figure or someone engaged in a relaxing downwards stretch. With its surprisingly proportionate body, the entity does not engage with the viewer. Its head is turned downwards, or upwards, encapsulated by the moment in which it is captured. To me, this feels like an 'action' photo, when the person being observed is not aware of anyone else's presence and his behaviour is natural, unwind. I use unwind because even in the case of the figure falling backward, the atmosphere of the painting does not seem hostile to me. Unlike Pear Tree I, the figure here seems to belong in its context. Therefore the seen could not even be a representation of a fall but a flight and by relating it again to the period in the artist's life, it might as well be a self portrait of that MOMENT in his life, instilled for posterity, in order to always preserve that tranquillity.
As the work progresses into the downstairs summer pavilion, the skylight sheds an invigorating bright aura over the Serge and Nest canvases and the two Untitled charcoal sketches. Those final pieces of the show come as a relief from the constant second guessing inspired by the large works previously experienced. They are, in my view, a perfect interpretation of the human mind. This interpretation might have nothing to do with the vision of the artist but to me, it portraits a dynamic mind, constantly looking for something to create. At any moment you can expect some of those black hatches to collide and through their interaction give birth to the next big thing.
Georg Baselitz left me impressed and tiered at the same time. Through the work presented in this exhibition, he creates, in my opinion, a space for inquiry, a space for questions without answers and a space for understanding, without actually knowing what. His upside down work changes the perspective for the viewer and by doing that, he changes the experience completely because it turns not the art upside down but the gaze inside out. Amazed and pleased, I left, wondering down towards Grosvenor Square and home, still feeling delighted with my latest discovery of a great artist and a great gallery which I will be visiting more often from now on.
Exhibition on until 6th March 2017. More details about the show and future events at www.michaelwerner.com or by following the gallery on Instagram and Twitter.
