Georg Baselitz
Blue-chip#5
Egon Investment Scores
Liquidity
8/10
How easily works can be bought and sold at auction
Institutional
10/10
Museum collections, biennials, and institutional recognition
Momentum
8/10
Recent price trends, gallery moves, and market buzz
Discovery
1/10
Undervaluation opportunity relative to peer artists
Risk
1/10
Investment risk factors — higher means more volatile
Market Position
- 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
- Note Meta
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- 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
- Averages Trailing 12mo Meta
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- 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.
- Pricing Meta
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- Collector Base
- International, with strong European/German base and deep institutional acquisition history.
- Liquidity Meta
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- 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
- Record Confirmed Meta
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- Recent Sales 2024 2025
- Art Basel 2025
- Work
- Oh ho, siamo ritornati, am deutschen Wesen, Weltgenesungsbild (2023)
- Price
- €2.2 million ($2.5 million)
- Gallery
- White Cube
- Work
- Drei Hunde aufwärts (1968)
- Price
- €3 million ($3.45 million)
- Gallery
- Thaddaeus Ropac
- Upcoming Sotheby's
- Fingermalerei - Akt estimated $2-3 million (May 2025)
- 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)
- Sothebys Mar 2026
- Date
- Mar 2026
- Work
- Ohne Gleisanschluss
- House
- Sotheby's
- Price
- $320,000 (sold below estimate)
- Date
- Mar 2026
- Work
- Untitled
- House
- Sotheby's
- Price
- $96,000
- 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
- Total Lots Offered Meta
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- Recent Sales 2025 2026 Meta
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- 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.
- Collector Base Meta
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- Primary Market Meta
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- Auction History Meta
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- Investment Outlook Meta
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Institutional Presence
- Estate Note
- Estate/studio collaborating with institutions on multiple 2026 shows; closed oeuvre now defined.
- Exhibitions
- Posthumous and 2026
Title Dates Venue Note Georg Baselitz: Eroi d'Oro (Heroes of Gold) May 5/6 – September 27, 2026 Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice Final series; posthumous debut coinciding with the 61st Venice Biennale; large-scale gold-ground paintings including self-portraits and portraits of Elke Baselitz. AVANTI! March 25 – September 13, 2026 Museo Novecento, Florence Major retrospective of ~170 works focused on printmaking, curated by Sergio Risaliti Georg Baselitz: Time for New Heroes Opened May 16, 2026 Kunstmuseum Schloss Derneburg / Hall Art Foundation Revolving presentation of prints Georg Baselitz, Bermondsey 2026 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)
- Posthumous and 2026 Meta
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- Recent Solo 2019 2025 Meta
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- Estate Note Meta
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- Exhibitions Meta
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- Museum Collections
- Metropolitan Museum of Art, New YorkArt Institute of ChicagoSmithsonian InstitutionCleveland Museum of ArtVictoria & Albert Museum, LondonCentre Georges Pompidou, ParisMuseum of Modern Art, New YorkTate Modern, LondonSolomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New YorkMuseum Ludwig, CologneSan Francisco Museum of Modern ArtBerlinische GaleriePinault 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
- 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
- 2014 Meta
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- Death Meta
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- 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.
- 2026 Final Work Meta
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- 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.
- Death Meta
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- 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.
- Life Dates Meta
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- Current Location
- Lives and works near Salzburg, Austria; Lake Ammersee, Germany; and Imperia, Italy
- Survived by Meta
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- Career Meta
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- Identity Meta
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- 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 Context Meta
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Artistic Profile
- 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
- Evolution Meta
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- 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
- Movements and Periods
- Signature Series Meta
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- Techniques and Mediums
- Mediums
- Oil painting, sculpture (wood, bronze), printmaking (etchings, woodcuts), drawings
Critical Reception
- Critical Reception
- Controversy
- Obituaries continue to note he 'came under fire' for comments about women artists, while affirming his art-historical importance.
- Controversy Meta
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- 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).
- Late Career Assessment Meta
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- Obituary Coverage 2026 Meta
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- Art Historical Positioning Meta
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- Publications and Media
- Major Publications
- Extensive Artforum coverage including major reviews by Stuart Morgan (1983), Lisa Liebmann (1982)Burlington Magazine (2018)Deutsche Welle coverageNew Yorker reviewsArtnet analysis
- Critical Reception Meta
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Gallery & Representation
- 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 YorkMichael Werner GalleryContemporary Fine Arts, BerlinCristea Roberts Gallery
- Primary Confirmed 2026 Meta
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- Recent Gallery Activity Meta
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- Fair Presence Meta
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- Representation Meta
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