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Woodman (Waldarbeiter)

The top half of a light-skinned man in overalls is attached laterally to a tree trunk, his legs and partial torso attached in the same way father up on the trunk. He holds one of his large ears and closes one eye.

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  • The top half of a light-skinned man in overalls is attached laterally to a tree trunk, his legs and partial torso attached in the same way father up on the trunk. He holds one of his large ears and closes one eye.

Date:

1969

Artist:

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

About this artwork

During the early 1960s, Georg Baselitz began producing representational images—characterized by thickly painted surfaces and often emotional and/or tragic themes—that drew inspiration from Germany’s artistic and cultural heritage. Between 1967 and 1969, Baselitz executed a series of Fracture Paintings, in which he segmented his subjects—animals, shepherds, and woodsmen—into horizontal bands or irregular fragments. Strung up sideways against a massive tree trunk, this woodsman heralded the artist’s trademark inverted figures, which first appeared soon after this painting’s completion. Conjuring a world gone mad, Woodman evokes the psychic and physical disorientation Germans experienced after their war-torn nation was partitioned in 1946. Indeed, Baselitz created this work after he left a divided Berlin to reside in a small German village.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Contemporary Art

Artist

Georg Baselitz

Title

Woodman (Waldarbeiter)

Place

Germany (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

1969

Medium

Charcoal and synthetic resin on linen

Inscriptions

Signed and dated: recto: "G Baselitz 69" (lower right in reddish-brown paint); not inscribed on verso

Dimensions

Framed: 254.6 × 204.5 cm (100 1/4 × 80 9/16 in.); 254.7 × 204.5 cm (100 1/4 × 80 1/2 in.)

Credit Line

Purchased with funds provided by Mrs. Frederic G. Pick; Walter Aitken Fund

Reference Number

1987.14

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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