(born in Deutschbaselitz, Saxony, in 1938)
Kleines Feuer, 2003, signed, dated and titled G. Baselitz, 24. VII. 03, Kleines Feuer, oil on canvas, 200 x 130 cm, framed

We are grateful to Mr. Detlev Gretenkort of the Archiv Georg Baselitz for his kind assistance with the cataloguing of this work.

Provenance:
European Private Collection

Exhibited:
Imperia, Villa Faravelli, Georg Baselitz e Benjamin Katz, Attori a rovescio, 22 May - 10 September 2005, exh. cat. pp. 72–73 with ill. and cover ill.
Lugano, Georg Baselitz, Museo d’Arte Moderna, 6 May - 23 September 2007 (label on the reverse), exh. cat. p. 114 with ill.

I begin with an idea, but as I work, the picture takes over.
Then there is the struggle between the idea I preconceived... 
and the picture that fights for its own life. 
Georg Baselitz

(…) With the 12 new round paintings, which were all executed in the summer of 2001 and do come after the triangular canvases using images taken from the Soviet cinema of the 1930s to 1950s, we can see that Baselitz`s answer has substantially remained the same, in that a painting is something that allows you to enter into conversation with yourself and to establish a link with the past.

(…) The Russenbilder became increasingly important during 1998. This was related to Baselitz`s completion of his Bildübereins, a major kaleidoscopic suite comprising 39 large-format pieces, in 1995. This was when Georg Baselitz started to look to the past, one that would enable him to move forward (…)

(…) In all of these paintings, what Baselitz did, was to put aside the angular forma and put the character in the middle, as if he were coming up from a basement. The canvas was then cut into a round shape and the motif surrounded with white banderoles. This format proved well suited to the Russian motifs because it made for greater lightness when the canvas was hung on the wall. The signification loses its weight, giving way to a more decorative dimension, and becomes almost forgotten(..)

Extracts from the press release of the exhibition “Meine Neue Mütze, 1 June – 31 July 2002, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris (the work Sibirski Greeting the Champions was exhibited there).

I always work out of uncertainty but when a painting‘s finished it becomes a fixed idea, apparently a final statement. In time though, uncertainty returns.. your thought process goes on.
Georg Baselitz

We are grateful to Mr. Detlev Gretenkort of the Archiv Georg Baselitz for his kind assistance with the cataloguing of this work.

Provenance:
European Private Collection

Exhibited:
Imperia, Villa Faravelli, Georg Baselitz e Benjamin Katz, Attori a rovescio, 22 May - 10 September 2005, exh. cat. pp. 72–73 with ill. and cover ill.
Lugano, Georg Baselitz, Museo d’Arte Moderna, 6 May - 23 September 2007 (label on the reverse), exh. cat. p. 114 with ill.

(…) With the 12 new round paintings, which were all executed in the summer of 2001 and do come after the triangular canvases using images taken from the Soviet cinema of the 1930s to 1950s, we can see that Baselitz`s answer has substantially remained the same, in that a painting is something that allows you to enter into conversation with yourself and to establish a link with the past.

(…) The Russenbilder became increasingly important during 1998. This was related to Baselitz`s completion of his Bildübereins, a major kaleidoscopic suite comprising 39 large-format pieces, in 1995. This was when Georg Baselitz started to look to the past, one that would enable him to move forward (…)

(…) In all of these paintings, what Baselitz did, was to put aside the angular forma and put the character in the middle, as if he were coming up from a basement. The canvas was then cut into a round shape and the motif surrounded with white banderoles. This format proved well suited to the Russian motifs because it made for greater lightness when the canvas was hung on the wall. The signification loses its weight, giving way to a more decorative dimension, and becomes almost forgotten(..)

Extracts from the press release of the exhibition “Meine Neue Mütze, 1 June – 31 July 2002, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris (the work Sibirski Greeting the Champions was exhibited there).

I always work out of uncertainty but when a painting‘s finished it becomes a fixed idea, apparently a final statement. In time though, uncertainty returns.. your thought process goes on.
Georg Baselitz