Untitled (Figure with Raised Arm)

Born Georg Kern near Dresden in East Germany, Baselitz adopted the name of his birthplace in 1961. He began his career as a painter poised between abstract and figurative art and concerned always to reconnect modern German art with its historical and visual roots. Around 1979, Baselitz turned to sculpting in wood. In this work, he has modelled the figure by direct hacking and gouging and then painted it, echoing a tradition that descends from comparable sculptures by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and from German Renaissance limewood sculpture.