Georg Baselitz: Eroi d'Oro 10 things to see at the Venice Biennale

By Alastair Sooke

This powerful show of 16 colossal new paintings by the German painter Georg Baselitz opens only a few days after his death last month at the age of 88. Repeatedly, against a gold ground, Baselitz depicts the frail and inverted nude form of his wife, Elke, or himself, with a scratchy black line that conveys a sense of wobbly, wrinkly bodily imperfections. These are frank but sympathetic paintings about old age that also hint at the transcendence which may follow life’s final phase. In a brief (but touching) filmed statement, the artist describes the “colourful flourishes” that embellish several of them as a “farewell”. Goodbye, Georg.