The article reviews "Georg Baselitz: A Life in Print," a comprehensive survey of the German painter's printmaking at Kode in Bergen, Norway, running from October 2025 to February 2026. Featuring 244 prints from 1964 to 2024, the exhibition showcases Baselitz's mastery of traditional techniques like etching, woodcut, and linocut, revisiting motifs from his paintings such as deer, eagles, and distorted figures. The show aims to correct the perceived neglect of prints by museums, as Baselitz himself lamented after his 2021 Centre Pompidou retrospective.
This exhibition matters because it is the most extensive survey of Baselitz's print work to date, highlighting a lesser-known but crucial aspect of his practice. Baselitz, a provocative figure in postwar German art, has long been celebrated for his paintings, but this show underscores his technical virtuosity and historical engagement with printmaking, from old masters like Parmigianino to his own iconic upside-down compositions. It also reaffirms his bold self-assessment as a leading artist, while addressing broader institutional attitudes toward prints as a medium.