Untitled (Saxonian Landscape)

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.

1961–1962

Hann Trier's master class and the end of his studies

In 1961 Baselitz attended Hann Trier's master class — an environment dominated by gestural abstraction, Tachism and Art Informel — and completed his studies the following year.

1962

Married: Johanna Elke Kretzschmar

1962

Marries Elke Kretzschmar

In 1962 Baselitz married Elke Kretzschmar; they have two sons, Daniel Blau and Anton Kern, both gallerists.

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.