Georg Baselitz
Blue-chipEgon research · Artist market profile
The market, in context.
Explore Georg Baselitz’s auction history alongside the exhibitions, collections and gallery relationships behind the market.
Institutional research
Collections & exhibitions
Read holdings, exhibition history and their qualifications in context.
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Egon investment scores
Market position
Research updated
Auction record context
Auction record remains $11.24 million for the sculpture 'Dresdner Frauen – Besuch aus Prag' (Women of Dresden – Visit from Prague, 1990), Sotheby's New York, May 2022. Per MutualArt, realized prices range from ~$2 to $11.24M; record price since 1998 stands at $11,240,000.
Pricing
Note
Wide spread by medium/scale — major historical paintings and sculptures reach multi-million; works on paper, prints and minor works trade from low thousands. Prints €200–€8,000; drawings into seven figures for major sheets.
- Prints
- €200 - €8,000
- Drawings
- €8,100 - €1,000,000
- Paintings
- €13,700 - €7,400,000
- Sculptures
- €1,600 - €1,500,000
- Averages trailing 12mo
- Per MutualArt (mid-2026): paintings averaged ~$792,017; works on paper averaged ~$31,969
Liquidity
Highly liquid for a blue-chip artist — ~2,700 lots historically; regular appearances at all major houses; 73% recent sell-through in tracked 2025+ data.
- Collector base
- International, with strong European/German base and deep institutional acquisition history.
Primary market
Frieze new york 2026
Thaddaeus Ropac sold 'Stunde der Nachtigall' (2012) for €1.4 million ($1.54M), leading its roster sales at Frieze New York 2026; also offered 'Ohne Titel' (2025) and 'Untitled' (2025).
- Gallery pricing guidance
- Primary-market pricing controlled by Gagosian, White Cube and Thaddaeus Ropac; contact galleries for current pricing on new/estate works.
Auction history
- Previous record
- $9.1 million for 'Mit Roter Fahne (With Red Flag)' (1965) at Sotheby's London, March 2017
Record confirmed
Auction record remains $11.24 million for the sculpture 'Dresdner Frauen – Besuch aus Prag' (Women of Dresden – Visit from Prague, 1990), Sotheby's New York, May 2022. Per MutualArt, realized prices range from ~$2 to $11.24M; record price since 1998 stands at $11,240,000.
- Market trajectory
- Strong institutional and collector demand; consistent performance at major auctions; significant presence in German contemporary art market surge
- Total lots offered
- ~2,700 works recorded at auction (MutualArt), indicating deep and liquid secondary market
Recent sales 2025 2026
- Phillips feb 2026
- 'Die Wildnis im Zimmer' — $645,000 at Phillips, Feb 2026
- Phillips sep 2025
- 'Getrommelt und gepfiffen' — $1,311 (works on paper, below estimate)
- Christies jun 2025
- Untitled — $44,100 (below estimate)
- Db summary 2025 onward
- Egon DB (Christie's/Sotheby's/Phillips/Bonhams, 2025+): 24 lots, 16 sold (73% sell-through), high $3,317,000, recent average hammer ~$182,639
Investment outlook
Trajectory
Sustained blue-chip demand; consistent multi-million results for major 1960s-90s works. Death likely supports long-term price strength though near-term results show some lots selling below estimate (a normal mixed pattern).
Estate repricing window
Death on April 30, 2026 opens a classic estate-market repricing window. News intelligence signals (Apr–May 2026, strength 8/10) flag typical post-mortem dynamics: closed oeuvre, controlled estate supply, and potential re-rating of major works. Posthumous Venice debut ('Eroi d'Oro') and concurrent museum retrospectives add momentum.
Institutional presence
Research updated
- Estate note
- Estate/studio collaborating with institutions on multiple 2026 shows; closed oeuvre now defined.
Exhibitions
Posthumous and 2026
Georg Baselitz: Eroi d'Oro (Heroes of Gold)
Note
Final series; posthumous debut coinciding with the 61st Venice Biennale; large-scale gold-ground paintings including self-portraits and portraits of Elke
- Dates
- May 5/6 – September 27, 2026
- Venue
- Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice
Baselitz. AVANTI!
- Note
- Major retrospective of ~170 works focused on printmaking, curated by Sergio Risaliti
- Dates
- March 25 – September 13, 2026
- Venue
- Museo Novecento, Florence
Georg Baselitz: Time for New Heroes
- Note
- Revolving presentation of prints
- Dates
- Opened May 16, 2026
- Venue
- Kunstmuseum Schloss Derneburg / Hall Art Foundation
Georg Baselitz, Bermondsey
- Dates
- 2026
- Venue
- White Cube Bermondsey, London
Upcoming exhibitions
- Georg Baselitz: Feet First, Munchmuseet, Oslo (through May 2025)
- Bourse de Commerce - Pinault Collection, Paris (2025)
Recent solo 2019 2025
- Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice (2019)
- Centre Pompidou, Paris (2021–22)
- Museo di Palazzo Grimani, Venice (2021–22)
- The Morgan Library & Museum, New York (2022)
- Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna (2023)
- Serpentine Gallery, London (2023)
- Sakıp Sabancı Museum, Istanbul (2024)
- KODE Bergen (2025)
- Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao (2025)
- MdM Salzburg (2025/26)
Museum collections
- Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Smithsonian Institution
- Cleveland Museum of Art
- Victoria & Albert Museum, London
- Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris
- Museum of Modern Art, New York
- Tate Modern, London
- Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
- Museum Ludwig, Cologne
- San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
- Berlinische Galerie
- Pinault Collection, Venice
Awards and recognition
- Japan Art Association Praemium Imperiale (2004)
- Villa Romana Prize (1965)
- Goslarer Kaiserring (1986)
- Membership French Académie des Beaux-Arts (2019)
Career & Biography
Research updated
Career
- 1957
- Expelled from East Berlin academy for 'sociopolitical immaturity'
- 1961
- Adopted name Georg Baselitz after hometown
- 1963
- First solo exhibition in Berlin, two works confiscated by authorities
- 1965
- Awarded Villa Romana scholarship, Florence
- 1969
- Began painting subjects upside down
- 1980
- Represented Germany at Venice Biennale
- 2004
- Received Japan Art Association's Praemium Imperiale prize
- 2014
- Avignon paintings — widely cited by critics as the start of his late-career peak phase
- 2018
- 80th birthday retrospective at Hirshhorn Museum
- Death
- April 30, 2026 — end of a six-decade career
2026 final work
His final series, 'Eroi d'Oro' (Heroes of Gold), large-scale gold-ground paintings, debuted posthumously at Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice, days after his death, coinciding with the 61st Venice Biennale. He described it as drawing 'some sort of conclusion' to his activity as a painter.
Identity
Death
Died April 30, 2026, at age 88; death announced by his longtime gallery Thaddaeus Ropac, which stated he died peacefully. Birth name Hans-Georg Kern, born January 23, 1938 in Deutschbaselitz, Upper Lusatia, Saxony.
- Life dates
- 1938–2026
- Survived by
- Survived by his wife Elke Kretzschmar (married 1962), who was the central figure/model in his practice for over fifty years, and their two sons.
- Current location
- Lives and works near Salzburg, Austria; Lake Ammersee, Germany; and Imperia, Italy
Artistic context
Formative experience growing up amid the ruins of postwar Germany shaped his work; he described being 'born into a destroyed order, a destroyed landscape, a destroyed people, a destroyed society.' His work played a decisive role in the return of figurative painting to the international stage in the 1970s-80s. Pioneer of German Neo-Expressionism.
Artistic Profile
Research updated
- Style
- Upside-down paintings (since 1969), bold expressionistic brushwork, figurative subjects rendered with raw emotional intensity
Evolution
Career arc: Heroes/Fracture series (1960s) → upside-down paintings (from 1969) → Remix series (2005+) → late aging/mortality self-portraits → gold-ground 'Eroi d'Oro' final works (2025–26). His late work increasingly centered on themes of aging, mortality, retrospection and his lifelong portraits of Elke.
- Influences
- German Expressionism, Edvard Munch, Jackson Pollock, Philip Guston, Willem de Kooning, Art Brut
Signature series
Eroi doro 2026
Final series 'Eroi d'Oro' (Heroes of Gold): large-scale paintings with luminous gold grounds and delicately rendered figures, overlaid with bursts of impasto color. The reflective gold planes deny depth, creating a flatness reminiscent of medieval icons and early Northern Renaissance gilded backgrounds; includes larger-than-life self-portraits and portraits of his wife Elke.
- Avignon paintings
- 2014 Avignon series marks the start of his celebrated late phase.
- Themes and subjects
- Post-war German identity, destruction and reconstruction, human figure, landscape, aging and mortality
Techniques and mediums
- Mediums
- Oil painting, sculpture (wood, bronze), printmaking (etchings, woodcuts), drawings
Critical Reception
Research updated
Critical reception
- Controversy
- Obituaries continue to note he 'came under fire' for comments about women artists, while affirming his art-historical importance.
- Academic recognition
- Taught at art academies in Karlsruhe and Berlin; influenced generations of artists
- Critical positioning
- Recognized as pioneering figure in German Neo-Expressionism and post-war European art
- Controversial aspects
- Known for controversial statements about women artists, but critical consensus on artistic importance remains strong
Late career assessment
Critics (e.g., obituary by poet/scholar Robert Isaf shared by the family) frame his work from the 2014 Avignon paintings onward as the realization of his full potential, recasting earlier decades as preparation for a 'later, greater masterpiece.'
Obituary coverage 2026
Death (April 30, 2026) received extensive tier-1 obituary coverage: ARTnews, The Art Newspaper, Artnet News, Domus, MutualArt, designboom, culture.org. Consistently described as one of the most consequential postwar German painters and an engine of 1980s Neo-Expressionism.
Art historical positioning
Credited with helping return figurative painting to the international stage in the 1970s-80s; recognition via 1980 Venice Biennale, 'A New Spirit in Painting' (Royal Academy), 'Zeitgeist' (Berlin), documenta 5 (1972) and documenta 7 (1982).
Publications and media
Major publications
- Extensive Artforum coverage including major reviews by Stuart Morgan (1983), Lisa Liebmann (1982)
- Burlington Magazine (2018)
- Deutsche Welle coverage
- New Yorker reviews
- Artnet analysis
Gallery & Representation
Research updated
Fair presence
Frieze New York 2026 — Thaddaeus Ropac led roster sales with Baselitz's 'Stunde der Nachtigall' (2012) at €1.4M. Continued presence at Art Basel and major fairs.
Representation
- Market positioning
- Tier 1 gallery representation across major art market centers
Primary confirmed 2026
At time of death represented by mega-galleries Gagosian, White Cube, and Thaddaeus Ropac (the latter announced his death and described as his longtime gallery). Representation continuing for estate.
Recent gallery activity
White Cube Bermondsey exhibition (2026); Thaddaeus Ropac active at Frieze New York 2026 with strong Baselitz sales; Gagosian organizing/supporting Venice 'Eroi d'Oro' presentation.
Secondary representation
- Skarstedt Gallery, New York
- Michael Werner Gallery
- Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin
- Cristea Roberts Gallery
Sources & research notes
Egon’s artist research combines historical auction records, recent sales, institutional history, critical reception and gallery information. Researched auction records and auction highlights are identified separately.
Read prices with their work, sale date, currency and stated basis. Egon’s market assessments are distinct from reported auction results.
Reference: Egon, “Georg Baselitz: Market Intelligence & Investment Profile.”
Research bibliography · 15 sources
Sources recorded for this artist’s research. This bibliography does not assign every source to an individual claim.
- Georg Baselitz, Pioneering German Postwar Painter, Has Died at 88 - ARTnews
- Georg Baselitz obituary - The Art Newspaper
- Georg Baselitz, Neo-Expressionist Pioneer, Dies - Artnet News
- Georg Baselitz dies at 88 ahead of Venice debut
- Georg Baselitz | 2,700 Artworks at Auction | MutualArt
- Sotheby's Spring NY Contemporary Sale $283.4M - Artnet News
- Georg Baselitz | Results & Biography | Sotheby's
- Georg Baselitz dead: Eroi d'Oro exhibition Venice Biennale 2026 - Domus
- Georg Baselitz: Eroi d'Oro - Gagosian
- Georg Baselitz: Time for New Heroes - Hall Art Foundation
- Museo Novecento Florence Baselitz. AVANTI! retrospective
- What Sold at Frieze New York 2026 - Artsy
- Georg Baselitz (1938-2026): The Artist Who Inverted History - MutualArt
- Georg Baselitz, Bermondsey (2026) - White Cube
- Georg Baselitz - Thaddaeus Ropac
Research updates by section
These dates show when Egon’s research sections were updated. Source retrieval dates, where supplied above, refer to individual evidence notes.
Ranking updated . Research sections follow their own update dates.
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