DRESDEN.- Unique exhibition on the theme of the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall: The Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden is showing works by Georg Baselitz dealing with the subject of Dresden and its history.

To mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Galerie Neue Meister and the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden are holding a special exhibition entitled “Georg Baselitz. Dresdner Frauen” through February 28, 2010. This unique show features major works by Georg Baselitz in which there is a direct connection between the exhibition venue and the artist’s creative process. The exhibition – the conceptual design for which has been drawn up by Baselitz and his wife – concentrates on works emanating from the artist’s reflections on Dresden and its history. The particular strength of this selection of works is that – unlike exhibitions that are intended to provide an overview of the artist’s oeuvre – they focus on a specific theme in an unprecedented way.

In a central location within the Semper Building, in the Gobelinsaal (Tapestry Hall), two large groups of works by Georg Baselitz are presented which are undoubtedly among the most significant artistic compositions dealing with the radical caesura of 1989. One of them is the monumental work “45” from the Kunsthaus Zurich. A few weeks before the fall of the Wall, in September 1989, the artist completed this set of 20 large-format plywood panels. This major work concerning German history refers to an event that is deeply etched not only into the memory of the artist: the destruction of Dresden and the apocalyptic end of the Second World War in an apotheosis by fire. The dominant motif in “45” – a woman who, mostly against a dark background, distractedly looks out onto the world as if through a window – has its counterpart in the 1990 work “Dresdner Frauen” (Women of Dresden), a group of monumental yellow-painted rough-hewn wooden sculptures on high plinths.

Attached to this core section of the exhibition are paintings and drawings in the adjacent gallery rooms, such as “Nachtessen in Dresden” (Supper in Dresden) and “The Bridge Ghost‘s Supper”. These reflect both Baselitz’s use of traditional Christian imagery and his artistic influences, which include Edvard Munch and the artists’ group Die BRÜCKE. In this way, Dresden, the artist’s birthplace of Deutschbaselitz and hence his Saxon origins quite naturally comes to the fore.

Following the major monographic exhibitions by the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden on Gerhard Richter in 2005 and on Sigmar Polke in 2007, this show featuring Georg Baselitz is the third to pay tribute to an internationally renowned contemporary artist whose origins lie in the eastern part of Germany. However, “Georg Baselitz. Dresdner Frauen” not only completes a triad but also herald the final stage in the restoration of the Albertinum, which is due to open in mid-2010 as a “Museum of Modernity” providing Dresden once again with a venue for the presentation of works of 19th to 21st-century art.