Georg Baselitz, the influential German Neo-Expressionist painter, printmaker, and sculptor, died on April 30 at age 88. His death was announced by Thaddaeus Ropac gallery, his longtime representative. Born Hans-Georg Kern in 1938 in Saxony, Baselitz was profoundly shaped by his childhood experience of war and the destruction of Nazi Germany. He was expelled from art school in East Berlin for "socio-political immaturity," moved to West Berlin, and adopted his pseudonym from his hometown. His first solo exhibition in 1963 was raided by police for obscenity, cementing his reputation as a provocateur. Known for his upside-down figures and fierce brushwork, he created series such as "Heroes" and "Fracture" that addressed trauma, violence, and the psychic toll of postwar life.
Baselitz matters because he was a defining figure of European Neo-Expressionism, pushing back against the dominant Conceptualism and Minimalism of his era. His work, which drew on influences from Soviet illustration to African sculpture, offered a raw, emotional confrontation with German history and identity. His signature inversion technique—painting figures and landscapes upside-down—became a powerful strategy to strip narrative meaning and force viewers to engage with form and feeling directly. As one of the most influential artists of the 20th century, his legacy endures in his unflinching exploration of destruction, grief, and survival.