This painting is marked by Baselitz’s characteristically heavy, unpolished brushwork. An androgynous figure seems to scream in terror or surprise at the yellow eagle perched on a windowsill at the lower right, from which the work takes its name ("Eagle in the Window"). Baselitz worked on this painting upside down, a practice he has maintained since 1969, in order, he has stated, to concentrate on formal structure and the painted surface, rather than content. Nevertheless, by the 1980s, the expressive power of his painting had established him as an important point of reference for an emergent group of young German Neo-Expressionist painters such as Anselm Kiefer.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Adler im Fenster
Artist:Georg Baselitz (German, born Deutschbaselitz, Saxony, 1938)
Date:1982
Medium:Oil on canvas
Dimensions:98 1/2 × 98 1/2 in. (250.2 × 250.2 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Gift of The Jerry and Emily Spiegel Family Foundation, 2007
Inscription: Signed and dated (lower right, scored into paint): 26.VII.82 G.B.; signed, dated, and inscribed (verso, in black ink marker): G Baselitz / 26.VII.82 / vier Nächte [crossed out] / 'Adler im Fenster' / Ileana
[Sonnabend Gallery, New York]; Emily and Jerry Spiegel, New York (1983); The Jerry and Emily Spiegel Family Foundation, New York (until 2007; their gift to MMA)
Berlin. Martin-Gropius-Bau. "Zeitgeist: Internationale Kunstausstellung," 1982–83, no. 8 (lent by Ileana Sonnabend, New York).
New York. Sonnabend Gallery. "Georg Baselitz," May 19–June 18, 1983.
Vancouver Art Gallery. "Georg Baselitz," November 2, 1984–January 2, 1985.
Barcelona. Centre Cultural de la Caixa de Pensions. "Georg Baselitz," February 27–April 22, 1990 (lent by Emily and Jerry Spiegel, New York).
Madrid. Sala de Exposiciones de la Caja de Pensiones. "Georg Baselitz," May 17–July 15, 1990.
New York. Mary Boone Gallery. "Georg Baselitz," November 16–December 21, 1991.
Roslyn Harbor. Nassau County Museum of Art. "Long Island Collections: The Gilded Age to the 1990s," May 30–September 12, 1993 (lent by Emily and Jerry Spiegel, New York).
Paris. Centre Pompidou, Galerie 1. "Baselitz: La rétrospective," October 20, 2021–March 7, 2022, unnumbered cat. (p. 163).
Jo-Anne Birnie Danzker. Georg Baselitz. Exh. cat., Vancouver Art Gallery. Vancouver, 1985, ill. p. 33.
Rudi Fuchs. Georg Baselitz. Exh. cat., Sala de Exposiciones de la Caja de Pensiones. Madrid, 1990, ill. pp. 86–87.
Constance H. Schwartz. Long Island Collections: The Gilded Age to the 1990s. Exh. cat., Nassau County Museum of Art. Roslyn Harbor, N.Y., 1993, p. 104, ill. p. 59.
Richard Calvocoressi. Georg Baselitz. New York, 2021, ill. pp. 212, 215 (installation view Exh. Berlin 1982–83 and overall, color), calls it "Adler im Fenster ('Eagle in the Window')".
Pamela Sticht inBaselitz: La rétrospective. Ed. Bernard Blistène. Exh. cat., Centre Pompidou, Galerie 1. Paris, 2021, pp. 134, 302, ill. p. 163 (color).
Georg Baselitz (German, born Deutschbaselitz, Saxony, 1938)
2015
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