Georg Baselitz, the German painter who turned postwar art upside down, dies at 88
Georg Baselitz, a pioneering German painter and sculptor known for his inverted artworks and raw depictions of postwar trauma, has died at the age of 88, according to the Thaddaeus Ropac gallery. Shaped by his experiences growing up in Nazi Germany and under Soviet communism, Baselitz emerged as a rebellious figure in postwar art, challenging norms through provocative imagery and upside-down compositions. His career, marked by both acclaim and controversy, redefined German expressionism and left a lasting impact on contemporary art.
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Georg Baselitz, the German painter who turned postwar art upside down, dies at 88Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inboxPublished May 01, 2026, 01:43 AMUpdated May 01, 2026, 01:49 AMListenApril 30 - Georg Baselitz liked to insist — sometimes as a taunt, sometimes as a shield — that he did not know how to paint. That he had "no talent."Rejected at 17 by the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts, he talked his way into an academy in East Berlin only to be expelled two semesters later for "sociopolitical immaturity.""I was stupid," he recalled.
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