Georg Baselitz, German artist who turned figurative painting on its head, has died, aged 88

German painter Georg Baselitz died on 30 April at age 88, with his death announced by his longtime gallery Thaddaeus Ropac, which did not specify a cause. Born Hans-Georg Kern on 23 January 1938 in Deutschbaselitz, he adopted the name Baselitz and became a major post-war figure known for reasserting figuration and for his 1969 breakthrough of painting subjects upside down. His first solo exhibition in 1963 was shut down by a public prosecutor who seized two works on obscenity grounds, an early controversy that marked his career. Baselitz later produced large carved sculptures made with axes and chainsaws and strongly influenced Neo-Expressionism and subsequent generations of German artists grappling with national history.

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