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Head (Kopf)

Artist Georg Baselitz (German, born 1938)
Date1984
MediumWoodcut on paper
DimensionsFramed: 37 1/2 × 26 3/8 × 1 5/8 inches (95.25 × 66.99 × 4.13 cm)
Credit LineGift of Charles and Leslie Hermann in honor of the 75th anniversary of The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
Object number2009.34
On View
Not on view
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DescriptionThis painting depicts a human head rendered upside down in red and pale yellow marks on a black background.Gallery Label

In Head (Kopf), Georg Baselitz depicts his classic motif—the upside-down head—in vivid red and yellow against a black background. This intentionally raw and roughly carved woodcut expresses the elemental anguish of human existence. The inverted head seems caught in the turmoil of an upside-down world. Head further serves as a metaphor for Germany, at that time a country divided against itself and wrestling with the need to address its rich yet deeply troubled past.

Baselitz is considered one of the most important German Neo-Expressionist artists. Neo-Expressionism, an international art movement that emerged in the 1980s, is dramatically gestural, heroically scaled and rich in personal, psychological and historical content.

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