REMIX
Remix is the title of a series of paintings that Georg Baselitz began in 2005, in which he revisited earlier works. Establishing an ideal continuity between past and present, the exhibition includes a selection of these paintings from the Remix cycle which heralded the Heroes and New Types of 2007 and 2008.
In his Remix paintings, Baselitz revisited the most provocative aspects of his own history, such as Die grosse Nacht im Eimer and Die grossen Freunde, and made new versions or interpretations of them with the benefit of hindsight. Enlarged and rapidly painted with swathes of bright, transparent hues and explosive, meandering lines, the Remix paintings are radical transubstantiations—part-caricature, part-ghost—of their more ponderous predecessors. The spontaneity with which they are executed gives rise to mnemonic flashes of things in the past, present, and future.The impulse to clarify and update is evident, but the haunting, fleeting quality of this work also has to do with a mature artist's meditations on time, presence, failure, and possibility. The artist has explained…
"I like the word 'remix' because it comes from youth culture."
For all their similarities, there are several important differences between this group of paintings and the earlier series. The most obvious is the choice of palette. Instead of the earthy tones that dominate the Heroes series, these works are painted in cool, vibrant colors. The artist also plays more with the white of the canvas to suggest a negation of space, situating the characters outside of the narrative. And in contrast to the solid bulks of his original heroes, these figures are rendered with more agile, energetic brushstrokes that convey a sense of dynamic movement. The artist explained what he sought to achieve with this "Remix":
“If you're remixing popular music you change the rhythm or the sound... What I do is something entirely different. I have thought for a long time about what to call what I do. I like the word "remix" because it comes from youth culture.”