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The Arts Intel Report

George Baselitz: Feet First

Georg Baselitz, Nachtessen in Dresden, 1983.

Feb 15 – May 4, 2025
Tøyengata 53, 0578 Oslo, Norway

The Second World War ended 80 years ago, but it is forever present in Georg Baselitz’s paintings of upside-down figures and eerie landscapes. “I was born into a destroyed order, a destroyed landscape, a destroyed people, a destroyed society,” he has said. “And I didn’t want to reestablish an order: I had seen enough of so-called order.” It’s no surprise, then, that the 86-year-old artist closely identifies with the work of Edvard Munch, whose Expressionist paintings resonate with his own anxieties about the world. In this exhibition, Baselitz’s largest-ever in Norway, paintings and wooden sculptures (hacked with chainsaws) suggest the artist’s obsession with his predecessor. How did Munch influence modern German art? How did he influence Baselitz? —Elena Clavarino

Photo: Kunsthaus Zürich © Georg Bazelitz 2025