“Baselitz Was 100% an Artist — He Painted as If Each Day Were His Last,” Says Son Daniel Blau
Creatrip Team
24 days ago
Georg Baselitz (1938–2026), the German neo-expressionist, is remembered in Seoul at a retrospective at Sehwa Museum that moved his son Daniel Blau. Blau described his father as a relentless artist who worked until the end, reducing a lifetime of heavy paint and bold gestures to pared-down late “gold paintings” that he likened to a single drop of lime syrup concentrating an essence. Baselitz’s recurring themes — mortality, the aftermath of war, and human frailty — persisted throughout his career even as his style evolved from thick impasto and inverted figures (the artist famously painted some works upside-down) to minimal lines. Blau said his father treated art as a vocation and confronted artistic crises by starting anew; he worried more about his own work stagnating than public misunderstanding. The family denied plans for a new foundation, explaining Baselitz had already organized archives and provenance records during his life, and the family will continue managing his estate. Anecdotes — from family life in a U-shaped farmhouse, the child’s careful coffee deliveries, to Baselitz foraging for truffles — show the private side of the man behind the controversial public figure. The Sehwa retrospective, Baselitz’s first solo museum show in Korea in 19 years and the first since his death, draws 500–600 visitors daily and runs through Dec. 27.
