- Opens on August 13, marking the first museum retrospective of the world-renowned master Georg Baselitz since his passing.
- Demonstrates immense public interest with all 3,000 early-bird tickets already sold out.
- Marks his first solo exhibition at a Korean museum in over 20 years and features his final interview.
- Unveils most of the exhibited works in Korea for the first time, showcasing a total of 46 pieces across painting, drawing, and sculpture.
- Features a special talk program with Baselitz’s family member Daniel Blau and art historian Heekyung Yun, alongside the related public program Eyes Seeing Upside Down.
- Offers an audio guide narrated by Artist Beenzino.
The Sehwa Museum of Art, operated by the Sehwa Art and Culture Foundation of Taekwang Group (Chairperson Ho-jin Lee), presents a retrospective exhibition encompassing the six-decade artistic trajectory of Georg Baselitz (1938-2026) on August 13, 2026.
Baselitz is widely regarded as a leading figure of German Neo‑Expressionism and a pivotal artist who established a new identity for German art in the late 20th century. Having witnessed the atrocities of World War II, he etched the scars of war and the history and memory of a divided Germany onto his canvases, forging a formal language of fragmented bodies and inverted figures. Not only did he reference the entirety of art history, but he also turned to his own past works as subjects for reinterpretation, relentlessly varying his motifs. Through rigorous experimentation with media and conceptual exploration, Baselitz forged a singular artistic universe and expanded the possibilities of painting.
This exhibition is organized to reexamine Baselitz’s singular visual language from multiple perspectives and to introduce his artistic legacy. It is the first solo exhibition of Baselitz’s work to be presented in Korea since 2007, and holds particular significance as one of the last exhibitions conceived during the artist’s lifetime, before his passing on April 30. The exhibition also unveils Baselitz’s last recorded interview, conducted in early April in Germany by the Sehwa Museum of Art’s Exhibition Team. In the video, Baselitz reflects on his 60‑year artistic journey and speaks directly about the shared histories of war and division in Korea and Germany, as well as his thoughts on European and Asian art.
The exhibition surveys about 60 years of his artistic universe, from early works in the 1960s to pieces from the final period of his life. It features a total of 46 paintings, drawings, and sculptures—including 39 works revealed in Korea for the first time—allowing for a multidimensional look at the entirety of Baselitz’s art.
The exhibition begins with early works from the 1960s through the 1980s that address key motifs recurring throughout the artist’s oeuvre. It continues with portraits of Elke Kretzschmar, Baselitz’s lifelong companion, painted in his later years; the Remix series, in which he self-referentially reinterpreted earlier motifs from the 2000s onward; and the fragmented body and eagle motifs that run throughout his practice. The final gallery presents the Gold Paintings, a series to which the artist remained deeply committed until shortly before his death.
The first work to welcome visitors is the large-scale, approximately 360 cm-tall sculpture 1965 (2024), installed outdoors in front of the Heungkuk Life Insurance Building where the museum is located. It is a work that condenses the sculptural techniques of an artist who considered sculpture to be more primordial than painting. At the entrance of Gallery 1 on the second floor, visitors are greeted by Two Cows Divided I (1966), a quintessential piece from his Frakturbilder (Fracture Paintings) series. The series of Elke portraits painted in his old age is also on view.
On the third floor, visitors encounter The Jump (Remix) (2007), a major work from the Remix series, in which Baselitz revisited and reinterpreted his own earlier works. Also on view is Loafers Were Found Later (2023), which reflects the artist’s singular worldview: by depicting the eagle, a German national symbol, as an inverted and falling form, Baselitz reconsiders the world not from the dimension of the sky, but from that of the earth.
At the end of the exhibition, Kirchner’s Hand (2019) and Willem’s Leg (2020)—tributes Baselitz dedicated to his predecessors Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Willem de Kooning—are showcased. More Than That, a work Baselitz immersed himself in right before his passing in 2026, is one of the works in the Gold Paintings series, which he himself referred to as “the essence of everything I have done so far.”
Following Baselitz’s major series and signature motifs, the exhibition reveals how his distinctive visual language of inversion and repetition evolved over time. It is structured as a space for considering how questions concerning history, humanity, and painting remain vital today.
In his final interview, Baselitz stated: “Black is the beginning of an aesthetic intention, gold is the end of that process.” Reaching his old age, the master paradoxically used the most brilliant gold to calmly confess the vulnerability of the aging human and the weight of life. His work did not stop even in the face of physical limitations. Relying on a wheelchair, he laid massive canvases he could barely reach flat on the floor; the paint, handcart tracks, and walker marks left on the canvas became traces of his very existence.
Mihee Ahn, Director of Sehwa Museum of Art, remarked, “This exhibition is significant both as the most comprehensive survey of Georg Baselitz’s artistic world to be presented in Korea and as a meaningful retrospective that reflects upon his artistic legacy following his passing. We hope visitors will experience a meaningful encounter with new sensations and inspiration beyond the everyday moments we too often pass by without notice.”
A range of public programs will be presented throughout the exhibition to deepen visitors’ understanding of the works. On September 1, Daniel Blau, a member of Baselitz’s family, and art historian Heekyung Yun will participate in a conversation on Baselitz’s artistic practice as observed during his lifetime and on the continuing significance of his work today. The related public program “Eyes Seeing Upside Down” is also scheduled. The audio guide is narrated by rapper Beenzino and is available free of charge to all visitors.
Demonstrating strong public interest, Super Early-Bird tickets sold out in two minutes, while the entire first release of early-bird tickets sold out within one week. Sehwa Museum of Art, which has presented exhibitions of masters such as James Rosenquist and Yayoi Kusama, has recorded its highest advance-booking rate since opening, attracting considerable attention from both the public and the Korean and international art communities. From August 13, tickets may be purchased through the Naver Booking system online or on site at the museum.
The exhibition runs for 137 days, from August 13 to December 27, 2026. More detailed information can be found on the Sehwa Museum of Art’s official website.