Untitled (Amorphous Drawing), 'The Gnome' [Der Zwerg]

Maker

(artist)
b.1938 (Life dates)

Title

Date of Production

1962

Medium

brush, ink, watercolour and gouache on laid paper

Dimensions

Height: 61.8 cm
Width: 48.7 cm

Accession Number

LD.2020.HK.1

Mode of Acquisition

Karshan Collection, long-term loan, 2020

Credit

Promised gift by Linda Karshan in memory of her husband, Howard Karshan. On long-term loan to The Courtauld Gallery, London

Copyright

Location

Not currently on display

Label Text

The seated figure is depicted in scratchy lines of ink as a monstrous arrangement of bodily forms and barbed marks. They include what appear to be lungs, a spleen, and a protruding penis. An empty speech bubble emanates from the figure’s head into the hostile-looking landscape. Such grotesque and pained figures are often seen as the artist’s response to the trauma of the post-war era in Germany.

Provenance

Mayen Würdig- Beckmann (Chlodwig Würdig & Mayen Beckmann), Munich [according to Runkel-Hue-Williams cat.); Clovis Merofinken, Wilzhofen, 1990; purchased from him via Galerie Fred Jahn (Munich) by Howard Karshan (1933-2017), 7 February 1990 [invoice in file]; Promised gift by Linda Karshan in memory of her husband, Howard Karshan. On long-term loan to The Courtauld Gallery, London.

Exhibition History

Modern Drawings: The Karshan Gift, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 19/11/2021-09/01/2022

Georg Baselitz: Paintings Bilder 1962-1988, Runkel-Hue-Williams and Grob Gallery, London, 1990

Literature

Modern Drawings: The Karshan Gift, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 20 Nov. 2021 - 9 Jan. 2022
cat. no. 21
Fig. p. p. 103, detail on p. 104

Georg Baselitz: Paintings Bilder 1962-1988, Runkel-Hue-Williams and Grob Gallery, London, 1990
unpag.
Fig. p. repr. (b&w and colour)

Inscriptions

Watermark: Watermark: Canson France on left lower edge.

Inscription: Recto: lower centre, brush and black ink, signed and dated: "Baselitz 1962".

Label: Frame, Verso: left, black ink printed on white label: “RUNEKL-HUE-WILLIAMS LTD / 6/8 Old Bond Street London W1X 3TA Tel: 071 495 7017 / Georg BASELITZ, b. 1938 / ‘Ohne Titel’ / (Untitled) / 1962 / Ink and watercolour on paper / 61.5 x 48 cm / Signed and dated lower middle”; right, black ink printed on white label with image of drawing: “TMP 2013-013.4 / Georg Baselitz / Amorphos Drawing, 1962 / gouache, 24 x 19 in.”; black ink printed on white label with barcode, on wire: “TMP 2013-013.4 / Baselitz, Georg, 1938- / Amorphos Drawing [drawing]”.

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