Adieu
Baselitz began to paint figures upside-down in the late 1960s, insisting that viewers should concentrate on the lines and marks of the painting rather than its resemblance to reality. He worked on this painting over a number of weeks, repeatedly adjusting the position of the two figures further apart from each other. The title Adieu reflects this sense of a growing separation: 'one of them is only half there, while the other is going away', the artist wrote. Asked about the chequerboard background, Baselitz recalled that, 'a starter's flag of a grand prix race was floating in my imagination'.
Beatriz Milhazes
1998
Mark Rothko
1960
Ivan Eyre
1969
