Question 1

True or false: Baselitz famously paints his subjects upside down to force viewers to focus on form, not content.

Accepted Answer

True. He began inverting his paintings in 1969, claiming it liberates the image from narrative and emphasizes painterly qualities.

Question 2

True or false: Baselitz insists all his paintings be displayed on the floor, not hung on walls.

Accepted Answer

False. While he often exhibits paintings upside down, he never requires floor display; his works are typically hung on walls inverted.

Question 3

True or false: Baselitz has always painted using only his left hand, even though he is naturally right-handed.

Accepted Answer

False. Georg Baselitz is naturally left-handed and has always used his left hand to paint. The statement claiming he is naturally right-handed is incorrect.

Question 4

True or false: Baselitz turned down an invitation to represent Germany at the Venice Biennale in 1980.

Accepted Answer

False. He actually represented West Germany at the 1980 Venice Biennale, where his controversial sculpture 'Model for a Sculpture' sparked debate.

Question 5

True or false: Georg Baselitz was born in East Germany and later defected to the West.

Accepted Answer

True. He was born in Deutschbaselitz, East Germany, in 1938 and was expelled from art school for 'sociopolitical immaturity' before moving West in 1957.

Question 6

True or false: Georg Baselitz creates wooden sculptures using a chainsaw.

Accepted Answer

True. He adopted the chainsaw in the late 1970s to carve rough-hewn wooden figures, a technique now central to his sculptural practice.

Question 7

True or false: Baselitz was the first living German artist to have a major retrospective at the Royal Academy of Arts in London.

Accepted Answer

False. The Royal Academy held a retrospective of German artist Anselm Kiefer in 2014, while Baselitz's was in 2020, so Baselitz was not the first living German artist to have one there.

Question 8

True or false: In the 1970s, Baselitz created a series of paintings inspired by Soviet propaganda posters.

Accepted Answer

False. Baselitz did not create such a series in the 1970s; his work in that decade is known for upside-down motifs, not Soviet propaganda. His earlier 'Heroes' series (1965–66) explored postwar German identity.

Georg Baselitz Trivia Questions