Object Information

Georg Baselitz (Hans-Georg Kern)
German, born 1938

Woodman (Waldarbeiter), 1969

Charcoal and synthetic resin on linen
250 x 200 cm (98 1/2 x 78 3/4 in.), unframed
Signed and dated: recto: "G Baselitz 69" (lower right in reddish-brown paint); not inscribed on verso
Restricted gift of Mrs. Frederic G. Pick; Walter Aitken Fund, 1987.14

In the late 1950s, when Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art were the predominant artistic movements, Georg Baselitz insisted on a return to figural representation, mining Germany’s cultural heritage for his subjects and stylistic models. Between 1967 and 1969, he produced a series of “Fracture Paintings” in which he segmented his subjects—shepherds, woodsmen, and animals—into horizontal bands or irregular fragments. Strung up sideways against a massive tree trunk, the woodman heralds the artist’s trademark inverted figures, which first appeared soon after the completion of this work. Created after Baselitz left a divided Berlin to reside in a small village, this painting may reflect his torment at the partition of that city and of Germany itself.

Exhibition, Publication and Ownership Histories

Exhibition History

London, Anthony d’Offay Gallery, “Georg Baselitz: Paintings 1966–69,” November 10–December 3, 1982, pl. 14 (color ill.), as “Woodmen, 1968.”

New York, Mary Boone Gallery, “Georg Baselitz,” November 21–December 23, 1987, n.pag. (color ill.), as “Waldarbeiter, 1968.”

Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, “Georg Baselitz,” October 22, 1996–January 5, 1997, cat. 8 (color ill.), as “Ohne Titel (Waldarbeiter).”

Publication History

“Annual Report 1986–1987” (Art Institute of Chicago, 1987), p. 29, fig. 17 (ill.).

“Georg Baselitz: Sculpture and Early Woodcuts,” exh. cat. (London: Anthony d’Offay Gallery, 1987), n.pag. (ill.), as “Woodmen/Waldarbeiter.”

Eleanor Heartney, “Georg Baselitz at Mary Boone,” “Art in America” 76, 7 (July 1988), p. 134.

Christos M. Joachimides et al., “Georg Baselitz: dipinti 1965–1987,” exh. cat. (Electa, 1988), p. 52 (photo).

Susan Kandel and Elizabeth Hayt-Atkins, “Georg Baselitz,” “ARTnews” 87, 3 (March 1988), p. 189.

Donald Kuspit, “Georg Baselitz: Mary Boone Gallery,” “Artforum” 26, 7 (March 1988), p. 134, as “Waldarbeiter (Forestworker), 1968.”

James N. Wood and Katharine C. Lee, “Master Paintings in the Art Institute of Chicago” (Art Institute of Chicago/New York Graphic Society Books and Little, Brown and Company, 1988), p. 160 (color ill.).

James N. Wood, “Treasures of 19th- and 20th-Century Painting: The Art Institute of Chicago” (Abbeville Press, 1993), p. 256 (color ill.).

James N. Wood and Teri J. Edelstein, “The Art Institute of Chicago: Twentieth-Century Painting and Sculpture” (Hudson Hills Press, 1996), p. 136 (color ill.).

Richard Shiff, “Georg Baselitz Grounded,” in “Negotiating History: German Art and the Past,” “Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies” 28, 1 (2002), pp. 62, 64–65, fig. 6 (color ill.).

Ownership History

Franz Dahlem, Darmstadt, Germany, 1970–1981; sold to Anthony d’Offay Gallery, London, 1981; sold to the Art Institute, 1987.