Georg Baselitz: Sigmunds' Cave

A dog is a dog is a dog or is it? Renowned German neo-expressionist artistGeorge Baselitz s dog portraits of 1999/2000 continue his play with the notion ofpainting as an act of sublimation in which naked facts are dressed in signs, codesand ornaments. This well-illustrated exhibition catalog, with informative essay byAnselm Wagner, presents Baselitz s large-scale upside-down frontal oil portraits of hisdog that are fundamentally different from the artist s other animal portraits. Painted inblack and white, with brush strokes that look like drawings and often scribed with thename Sigmund, these are masks and codes of the Freudian universe, preparing thebeholder for numerous hidden allusions. Made in response and homage to SigmundFreud, who was also a dog lover, as he waited to escape the Nazi regime in 1938. Essayby Anselm Wagner.