Renowned for his expressionistic, often grotesque, figurative artwork, Georg Baselitz’s outputs span across the mediums of painting, wood sculpture and printmaking. His most notable works tend to draw upon the issue surrounding Germany’s national identity following the second world war – he was subject to a storm of controversy in 1980 following his selection as Germany’s representative at the Venice Biennale, where he exhibited a large wooden sculpture appearing to pose in a Nazi salute. Among Baselitz’ earliest influences are Art Brut and Abstract Expressionism, as well as the individual works of such artists as Wassily Kandinsky and Edvard Munch – the exaggerated features captured throughout his work are intended to be symbolic, and one of his most recognised outputs is his Hero series – a selection of images showcasing the wounded and scarred soldiers that had survived war. Towards the end of the 60’s. Baselitz began to paint his subjects upside down as a means of expressing that artists should focus less on the original image that they are looking to create, and more on the medium they are using for expression – his Elke series of paintings are just one of many examples of this technique. Read Less