When Michael Werner saw a painting of mine, such as Die grosse Nacht im Eimer, which back then nobody wanted and everybody thought was ridiculous, he realized that this was the right provocation, that it represented the feeling of the times in the right way.

Georg Baselitz

Categorized in : Feelings Painting Ridiculous

The artist is not responsible to any one. His social role is asocial... his only responsibility consists in an attitude to the work he does.

Georg Baselitz

artist responsibility attitude

What counts most is finding new ways to get the world down in paint on my own terms.

Georg Baselitz

way world art

Women don't paint very well. It's a fact. There are, of course, exceptions. Agnes Martin or, from the past, Paula Modersohn-Becker.

Georg Baselitz

paint facts past

I have always had the feeling that other people are too stupid to discover interesting things. That's why I do it myself. I think of collecting as a way to show that I understand what's important better than others do.

Georg Baselitz

stupid people thinking

I begin with an idea, but as I work, the picture takes over. Then there is the struggle between the idea I preconceived... and the picture that fights for its own life.

Georg Baselitz

fighting struggle ideas

An object painted upside down is suitable for painting because it is unsuitable as an object.

Georg Baselitz

upside-down objects painting

I don't paint over my paintings with black paint. I paint black paintings. It isn't because I'm sad, just as I didn't paint red paintings yesterday because I was happy. Nor will I paint yellow paintings tomorrow because I'm jealous.

Georg Baselitz

jealous black tomorrow

I would say for everyday I build buildings or houses like a bricklayer with canvas and paint.

Georg Baselitz

canvas everyday house

I had always loved expressionist painting, like every European. In fact I admired it all the more because these were precisely the paintings despised by my father's generation.

Georg Baselitz

generations europe father

What I could never escape was Germany, and being German.

Georg Baselitz

germany

Art is visceral and vulgar - it's an eruption.

Georg Baselitz

visceral eruption art

That was in 1957. And there I found out that Germany is a kind of province. I didn't know anything about expressionism, about the Bauhaus and Dada and surrealism. I was uneducated, so to speak - and everybody else was more or less uneducated, too.

Georg Baselitz

surrealism kind speak

Most of arts what comes from the States to Europe has something to do with entertainment. I can't imagine artists in the United States having the same kind of isolated position that we have here in Europe. I have a feeling one lives more publically in the States.

Georg Baselitz

kind feelings art

I hang my work upside down to emphasize surface.

Georg Baselitz

exhibitions surface upside-down

I dont want to create a monster; I want to make something which is new, exceptional, something that only I do...something that references tradition, but is still new.

Georg Baselitz

tradition want monsters

A citizen sticks to conventions, does whatever is social. Artists, of course, must reject all conventions. I see no differently in reconciling the best of both of these worlds.

Georg Baselitz

artist world

I don't see art as entertainment.

Georg Baselitz

art

A painter doesn't need any talent. In fact, it's better not to have it.

Georg Baselitz

painter talent

You cannot deny your origins: I love Kirchner more than Matisse, although Matisse was a greater artist. That isn't to do with nationality. It's a stronger feeling.

Georg Baselitz

patriotism artist feelings

As a human being, I am a citizen, but as an artist, I am asocial.

Georg Baselitz

artist