Rebel (Baselitz)

Last updated

Rebel is an oil on canvas painting by German artist Georg Baselitz, created in 1965. The painting has the dimensions of 162,7 by 130,2 cm and is held at the Tate Modern, in London. [1] [2]

Description and analysis

The painting belongs to a series that Baselitz did in the 1960s depicting male characters, who tend to dominate the space of the canvas, representing archetypes, like heroes and rebels. They are related often to the recent or current situation of Germany. This figure seems inspired by the recent events of World War II, its possibly a soldier, and is shown wounded, bloody and limping, even with a smile on his face. His body appears strangely almost transparent, as it offers a glimpse of his viscous entrails. As a reference to a war, the character holds in one hand the pole of a flag, or perhaps a paintbrush, while his other hand is bandaged. The background is entirely dark, while a burning house is seen in the distance. [3] [4]

Baselitz depiction appears inspired by his childhood memories of the war, while his style bears references to German romantic depiction of heroes and heroism, and to German expressionist denounciation of the cruelty of wars. [5] [6]

According to Gunter Gercken the character is "a peaceful fighter, a green hero, a partisan against war, armed not with a machine gun but with a paintbrush and palette". Instead of an hero of the past it represents a wounded and dishevelled anti-hero of his time. [7]

Related Research Articles

Fernand Léger French painter

Joseph Fernand Henri Léger was a French painter, sculptor, and filmmaker. In his early works he created a personal form of cubism which he gradually modified into a more figurative, populist style. His boldly simplified treatment of modern subject matter has caused him to be regarded as a forerunner of pop art.

Vorticism British modernist art movement formed in 1914

Vorticism was a London-based modernist art movement formed in 1914 by the writer and artist Wyndham Lewis. The movement was partially inspired by Cubism and was introduced to the public by means of the publication of the Vorticist manifesto in Blast magazine. Familiar forms of representational art were rejected in favour of a geometric style that tended towards a hard-edged abstraction. Lewis proved unable to harness the talents of his disparate group of avant-garde artists; however, for a brief period Vorticism proved to be an exciting intervention and an artistic riposte to Marinetti's Futurism and the post-impressionism of Roger Fry's Omega Workshops.

Malcolm Morley English painter

Malcolm A. Morley was a British-American artist and painter. He was known as an artist who pioneered in varying styles, working as a photorealist and an expressionist, among many other styles.

Christopher Ofili, is a British Turner Prize-winning painter who is best known for his paintings incorporating elephant dung. He was one of the Young British Artists. Since 2005, Ofili has been living and working in Trinidad and Tobago, where he currently resides in Port of Spain. He also lives and works in London and Brooklyn.

Georg Baselitz German artist

Georg Baselitz is a German painter, sculptor and graphic artist. In the 1960s he became well known for his figurative, expressive paintings. In 1969 he began painting his subjects upside down in an effort to overcome the representational, content-driven character of his earlier work and stress the artifice of painting. Drawing from myriad influences, including art of Soviet era illustration art, the Mannerist period and African sculptures, he developed his own, distinct artistic language.

Christopher R. W. Nevinson English painter

Christopher Richard Wynne Nevinson was an English figure and landscape painter, etcher and lithographer, who was one of the most famous war artists of World War I. He is often referred to by his initials C. R. W. Nevinson, and was also known as Richard.

Gerhard Richter German visual artist

Gerhard Richter is a German visual artist. Richter has produced abstract as well as photorealistic paintings, and also photographs and glass pieces. He is widely regarded as one of the most important contemporary German artists and several of his works have set record prices at auction.

Anselm Kiefer German painter and sculptor

Anselm Kiefer is a German painter and sculptor. He studied with Peter Dreher and Horst Antes at the end of the 1960s. His works incorporate materials such as straw, ash, clay, lead, and shellac. The poems of Paul Celan have played a role in developing Kiefer's themes of German history and the horrors of the Holocaust, as have the spiritual concepts of Kabbalah.

<i>The Fairy Fellers Master-Stroke</i> Painting by Richard Dadd

The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke is a painting by English artist Richard Dadd. It was begun in 1855 and worked on until 1864. Dadd painted it while incarcerated in the State Criminal Lunatic Asylum of Bethlem Royal Hospital, where he was confined after he murdered his father in 1843. It was commissioned by George Henry Haydon, who was head steward of the hospital at the time.

Martin Kippenberger was a German artist known for his extremely prolific output in a wide range of styles and media, superfiction as well as his provocative, jocular and hard-drinking public persona.

<i>A Bar at the Folies-Bergère</i> Painting by Édouard Manet, considered his last major work - 1882

A Bar at the Folies-Bergère is a painting by Édouard Manet, considered to be his last major work. It was painted in 1882 and exhibited at the Paris Salon of that year. It depicts a scene in the Folies Bergère nightclub in Paris. The painting originally belonged to the composer Emmanuel Chabrier, a close friend of Manet, and hung over his piano. It is now in the Courtauld Gallery in London.

<i>Die große Nacht im Eimer</i> Painting by Georg Baselitz

Die große Nacht im Eimer is an oil on canvas painting by the German painter Georg Baselitz. It was painted in 1962–1963 and is now held in the Museum Ludwig in Cologne.

Glenn Brown (artist) British artist

Glenn Brown is a British artist known for the use of appropriation in his paintings. Starting with reproductions from other artists' works, Glenn Brown transforms the appropriated image by changing its colour, position, orientation, height and width relationship, mood and/or size. Despite these changes, he has occasionally been accused of plagiarism.

<i>The Kiss</i> (Klimt) Painting by Gustav Klimt

The Kiss is an oil-on-canvas painting with added gold leaf, silver and platinum by the Austrian Symbolist painter Gustav Klimt. It was painted at some point in 1907 and 1908, during the height of what scholars call his "Golden Period". It was exhibited in 1908 under the title Liebespaar as stated in the catalogue of the exhibition. The painting depicts a couple embracing each other, their bodies entwined in elaborate beautiful robes decorated in a style influenced by the contemporary Art Nouveau style and the organic forms of the earlier Arts and Crafts movement. The painting now hangs in the Österreichische Galerie Belvedere museum in the Belvedere, Vienna, and is considered a masterpiece of Vienna Secession and Klimt's most popular work.

<i>Whaam!</i> 1963 pop art painting by American artist Roy Lichtenstein

Whaam! is a 1963 diptych painting by the American artist Roy Lichtenstein. It is one of the best-known works of pop art, and among Lichtenstein's most important paintings. Whaam! was first exhibited at the Leo Castelli Gallery in New York City in 1963, and purchased by the Tate Gallery, London, in 1966. It has been on permanent display at Tate Modern since 2006.

<i>The Charnel House</i> Painting by Pablo Picasso

The Charnel House is a 1944–1945 oil and charcoal on canvas painting by Spanish artist Pablo Picasso, which is purported to deal with the Nazi genocide of the Holocaust. The black and white 'grisaille' composition centres on a massed pile of corpses and was based primarily upon film and photographs of a slaughtered family during the Spanish Civil War. It is considered to be Picasso's second major anti-war painting, the first being the monumental Guernica (1937), although it is smaller than its predecessor and unfinished. The painting is housed in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

<i>Brushstrokes</i> series Painting series by Roy Lichtenstein

Brushstrokes series is the name for a series of paintings produced in 1965–66 by Roy Lichtenstein. It also refers to derivative sculptural representations of these paintings that were first made in the 1980s. In the series, the theme is art as a subject, but rather than reproduce masterpieces as he had starting in 1962, Lichtenstein depicted the gestural expressions of the painting brushstroke itself. The works in this series are linked to those produced by artists who use the gestural painting style of abstract expressionism made famous by Jackson Pollock, but differ from them due to their mechanically produced appearance. The series is considered a satire or parody of gestural painting by both Lichtenstein and his critics. After 1966, Lichtenstein incorporated this series into later motifs and themes of his work.

<i>Merry-Go-Round</i> (Gertler painting)

Merry-Go-Round is a large oil on canvas painting made by Mark Gertler in 1916, when he was 24 years old. It is perhaps his most famous work, and depicts men and women on a merry-go-round ride. The painting may have been inspired by a ride at the annual fair on Hampstead Heath. The painting is now held in Tate Britain.

United Nations Security Council mural

The United Nations Security Council mural is an oil painting by Norwegian artist Per Krohg exhibited at the United Nations in New York City since August 22, 1952. The mural, a 16' x 26' foot long canvas located on the United Nations Security Council's east wall, features a central image of a rising phoenix surrounded by images of war and disharmony, near the mural's bottom, and more tranquil images at the top.

<i>Crucifixion</i> (1933)

Crucifixion is an early oil on canvas painting by Francis Bacon, made in 1933 when Bacon was aged 23 or 24. It was one of three paintings on the subject of the Crucifixion that he made in 1933, the others being his Crucifixion with Skull, commissioned by art collector Sir Michael Sadler, and Wound for a Crucifixion. It is held in Damien Hirst's Murderme Collection.

References