Prominent contemporary visual artist explored range of techniques across six decades of work
The German artist Georg Baselitz, whose expressive paintings and sculptures stirred controversy before winning him global acclaim, has died aged 88.
The Thaddaeus Ropac gallery, which had a longstanding professional relationship with the artist, confirmed his death on Thursday. It said Baselitz had “defined German visual art for a generation” and had died peacefully.
Baselitz, born Hans-Georg Kern, was among Germany’s most prominent contemporary visual artists, with a body of work stretching over six decades and across a range of techniques.
He adopted the name Baselitz in 1961 as a nod to Deutschbaselitz, the town near Dresden in eastern Germany where he was born in 1938.
