BASELITZ MANIFESTOS

The internationally renowned artist Georg Baselitz, who has made Salzburg his home, celebrates his eighty-eighth birthday in 2026. The Museum der Moderne Salzburg observes the occasion with two exhibitions at its two venues dedicated to the artist. Together, they span the decades from his early drawings to his monumental late oeuvre.

Early works at the Rupertinum

In the early 1960s, the artist made a conscious choice to produce figurative art—a decision that was seen as provocative at a time when abstract art was ascendant. His work not only broke new ground in painting, it also secured his place in art history as an innovator of postwar art. The exhibition at the Rupertinum puts the focus on his early graphic art, in which Baselitz wrestled with German history, identity, and the artistic ego, intertwining classical pictorial traditions with a forceful visual language that was often perceived as raw and disturbing. The presentation’s distinctive thematic organization takes guidance from the four manifestos the artist wrote in the 1960s.

The exhibition is supported by loans from the Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst, Aachen, loans Peter and Irene Ludwig Foundation, as well as additional private lenders. Both exhibitions and the publication on Georg Baselitz are supported by a special grant from the State of Salzburg and a private loan.