Neo-Expressionism

A German Neo-expressionist artist and avant-garde sculptor, one of the founders of the New Wild group. The real name of the artist is Kern, and he took the pseudonym from the name of his native town of Deutschbazelitz, located near Dresden.The artist’s “calling card”, which makes his paintings instantly recognizable, is human figures located upside down on the canvas. Georg Baselitz began depicting people in this way around 1969.The uncompromising and rebellious spirit of the future famous artist led to the fact that Georg Baselitz was expelled from the art school; his works “What a night fell” and “Naked Man” were banned as obscene, and seized by the police during his first exhibition.Forced to work in the official style of socialist realism while living in East Berlin, the artist switched to abstract art after moving to the western part of the city. Gradually, Baselitz rejected both movements and began to revive German Expressionism, which flourished before the war but was objectionable to the Nazi government. The human figure took the central place in the work of Baselitz, and the paintings became scandalous and defiant.Georg Baselitz played a key role in the development of German art after the Second World War, expressing national identity with the help of symbolic and expressive images.The artist's works were often criticized because of their repulsive and unaesthetic content; however, at the same time, they inspired a lot of European and American artists, contributing to the revival of figurative art.Today, Georg Baselitz is an internationally recognized artist whose work is one of the most expensive works of contemporary painters and sculptors. He continues to work tirelessly, creating a kind of "remake" of his compositions of past years.

On Mornington-Crescent Street, the artist created at least a dozen works, depicting this place from various angles and under different lighting. In this work, the viewer seems to be at the foot of a high brick pipe, at which he looks from bottom to top.

J.Y.M is the initials of Juliet Yardley Mills, who was a professional model and posed for the artist twice a week for many years. Among all the images of Julia, this portrait, depicting a young woman sitting with her head thrown back, is the most expressive and bright.

Juliet Yardley Mills (J.Y.M.), the main model of Frank Auerbach since 1963, posed for this work. This is her first image of three portraits painted in 1981, which was completed in 20 sessions.

The artist rarely left London, only in case of emergency; he painted his landscapes mainly in the city. Primrose Hill is a square that was not far from the master’s studio; he depicted it many times, from different angles, at different times of the day and, therefore, under different lighting conditions.

Despite the innovative and semi-abstract style of painting, Frank Auerbach relied on classical art and famous works of old masters. The painting “Bacchus and Ariadne” was created based on the plot of the same work by Titian, but the artist rethought it in a completely new way.

In portraiture, Frank Auerbach does not set out to depict a person or reveal and show his feelings plausibly. The artist is more interested in the shape and structure of the object, its internal essence, which is expressed with the help of powerful and energetic strokes.

In this painting, we can see the living room in the house of the constant model of the artist actress Stella West, where Auerbach came to paint the mistress even three times a week for many years. The central part of the canvas is occupied by a lamp with a high leg, which is the main source of light in the picture; you can see Stella and her daughter Julia in armchairs on both sides of it.

The work painted in watercolours and charcoal depicts the permanent model of the artist, actress Estella West. By the time of painting it, Auerbach had already created about 80 pictures of this woman; the artist never got tired of his models, tirelessly depicting them in various poses and noticing the slightest changes that happen to the person every day.

In his early canvases, the artist often depicted his comrade, Leon Kossoff, an artist with whom he shared the London studio. Auerbach painted the face of his model very schematically, expressing his features with rough and sharp strokes.

After graduating from school, Frank Auerbach was going to be an actor. He got a role in one of London's amateur theaters, where he met actress Estella Olive West, who insisted that the young man should be a painter and became his permanent model.

Mediums: оil, gesso and printed canvas on mounted canvas. Location: the Museum of Modern Art, New York (the USA).

Mediums: wood (linden), tempera. Location: The Ludwig Museum of Modern Art, Cologne (Germany).