Big Night Down the Drain

1957–1962

Friendship with Eugen Schönebeck and Benjamin Katz

At the Hochschule der Künste Baselitz immersed himself in the theories of Ernst Wilhelm Nay, Kandinsky and Malevich and became friends with Eugen Schönebeck and Benjamin Katz.

1961

The “Pandemonium-1” exhibition and manifesto

Together with another young Saxon, Eugen Schönebeck, Baselitz staged the exhibition “Pandemonium-1” in the Wilmersdorf district, where a manifesto was proclaimed setting their work against the abstract art that then dominated.

1961

Takes the name Georg Baselitz

Born Hans-Georg Kern, in 1961 he changed his name to Georg Baselitz in memory of his home town.

1962

Married: Johanna Elke Kretzschmar

1963

A scandal at his first solo show

Baselitz's first solo exhibition in West Berlin, at Galerie Werner & Katz, caused a public scandal: two days after the opening the public prosecutor seized two paintings, “The Big Night Down the Drain” and “The Naked Man”, as obscene; the court case did not end until October 1965.

1965

A Villa Romana scholarship in Florence

In 1965 Baselitz won a six-month scholarship to the Villa Romana in Florence, where he studied Mannerist graphics and produced the “Tierstück” (“Animal Piece”) pictures.