Georg Baselitz has died at the age of 88 | The German painter and sculptor was a leading figure of Expressionism

By Philippe Dagen

The German painter, sculptor, and engraver Georg Baselitz died on Thursday, April 30, at the age of 88, relatives of the artist announced to the German press. A major figure in contemporary art, he was the most powerful representative of Expressionism, indifferent to the movements that dominated the second half of the 20th century in Europe and the United States.

Hans-Georg Bruno Kern was born on January 23, 1938, near Dresden, in the village of Deutschbaselitz, where he spent his early childhood and from which he would later adopt part of the village name as his pseudonym in 1961. His father was the village schoolteacher and a member of the Nazi party, in accordance with his civil servant status. He later served as a soldier in the Wehrmacht during World War II, where he was wounded and taken prisoner. At the end of the war, in 1945, the seven-year-old witnessed Dresden devastated by bombing and the civilian population fleeing the Red Army.