It is a great artistic game that Georg Baselitz has staged in the Renaissance halls and corridors of the Galleria degli Antichi in Sabbioneta. In the exhibition, curated by Mario Codognato with the aegis of the Fondazione Sabbioneta Heritage, the German artist allows us to take an exciting journey among some giant sculptures in carved wood and patinated bronze, which weave an intense dialogue between linocuts and oils on canvas. A dialogue, obviously, upside down. For some time Baselitz, born in 1938, has made the spatial reversal of his canvases a key element of his creativity, inducing the observer to concentrate more on the details of the subjects depicted. And here comes into play the perception that nestles between Baselitz’s figures: eros peeps out, sometimes quite explicitly, to convey to us the ‘bel respiro’, the Italian translation of the title of the exhibition: “Belle Haleine”, an allusion to the ready-made of the same name created in the 1920s by Marcel Duchamp.

Georg Baselitz nel suo studio, 1999 © Elke Baselitz 2024

Under the gaze of so many regal, mythical and also deeply human characters, as well as animals, dreams, exotic fruits and lush gardens, created by the late sixteenth-century hand of Bernardino Campi, the thirty works of the exhibition parade, which, in the case of the ten engravings, can be seen all together for the first time sixty years after the previous exhibition in Berlin. In the beautiful video that introduces the exhibition, in addition to telling us a lot about himself and his deep and historic bond with Italy, the artist really shows off his utmost sincerity: he admits that the upside-down figures seemed to him at the time to be a way to get noticed and he also admits that it is useless to try to trace elements of social commitment in his art. Once past the first room where the oversized sculptures are located (which recall, with their enormous feet, historical elements of Nazi Germany), you enter the Gallery of the Ancients, the beating heart of the exhibition. Between the arches conceived by the builders from the late 16th century, the works have been arranged in pairs of panels. The effect desired by the curator of the exhibition is not disturbing, on the contrary: the depth of the corridor seems to increase and the symbolic reference of the couple is the absolute protagonist in the works (both in the engravings and in the canvases).

Georg Baselitz, “La nuit mit Marie”, 2002, linocut on paper, courtesy Cristea Roberts Gallery; “Belle voilette”, 2002, linocut on paper, photo Ulrich Ghezzi © Georg Baselitz 2024

Observing the couples depicted, the visitor is asked to make an additional perceptive effort: between the essential lines traced by the engravings and the brush strokes of the oils, there is the carnality of the couple, there is indeed the breath of passion. This sensation is transmitted both by the two-tone nature of the engravings and by the intense color contrasts of the canvases, often on a polka-dot background, other times with evident dripping actions. The contrast between the characteristic architectural rationality of the place and the vibrant energy of Georg Baselitz’s creativity enhances the strength of the figures portrayed by the artist. And some white circles, placed at the height of the genitals as expressions of censorship, further strengthen the imagination of the visitor, thus transformed into a meticulous voyeur.

Georg Baselitz, “Donna Via Venezia”, 2004 – 2006, patinated bronze and oil, 263,5 x 86,5 x 93,5 cm, photo Jochen Littkemann © Georg Baselitz 2024

The reference to Marcel Duchamp is not only in the title. The competitive artistic relationship that Baselitz established with the French artist is well known, necessarily at a distance given the different generations they belong to. In the work Ideology and Maid, the face of the female protagonist is between that of Duchamp and that of Sigmund Freud. In the painting Enamelled Suzanne, there is still Duchamp in the sexual and incestuous act with his sister. The exhibition is accompanied by the homonymous catalogue published by Silvana Editoriale.

Info:

Georg Baselitz: Belle Haleine  
27/04 – 24/11/2024
Galleria degli Antichi – Sabbioneta (MN)
www.comune.sabbioneta.mn.it

Giovanni Crotti

I am Giovanni Crotti and I was born in June 1968 in Reggio Calabria to be reborn in June 2014 in Piacenza, the city where I live. My income is guaranteed by digital consultancy, and I then spend it largely on art and letterature: I have been and am a content curator and organizer of cultural events for artists, galleries and institutional spaces, as well as a writer of exhibition reviews, creatives of every era and books.