Georg Baselitz: Sofabilder/Sofa Pictures at White Cube

Monochrome paintings, exploring the image of a laying figure. Baselitz said in number of interviews that he does not consider himself an artist, but a painter. Repetition, typical for his paintings, works here as a visual record of thorough consideration of equally a subject and a technique. The monoprinting technique used to create these paintings makes a very specific mark and look, reminiscent of x-ray, emphasised by the chosen colours. What I find personally interesting is that close-ups of the paintings look a lot like landscapes, evoking the famous Renaissance idea of landscape as a body and the later reverse idea of a body as a landscape. Are these bodyscapes intentional? Who knows, Baselitz is well known for using a lot of references to art history (some can notice the laying pose referencing Picasso’s L’Aubade (The Serenade) which in turn is a reference to Venus of Urbino among other numerous traditional paintings of a reclining female figure).

Exhibition period: 24 May—3 September
Gallery address: 50 Connaught Road Central, Central