Inscriptions: in the center, in pen and India ink: 28. V. 01 Provenance : gift of the artist to the École des Beaux-Arts in 2002
This drawing belongs to a set of three works that Georg Baselitz gave the École des Beaux-Arts, in 2002, on the occasion of an exhibition of his collection of mannerist engravings at the Chapelle des Petits Augustins. The two other pieces in the group are entitled Frida Kahlo and Marcel Duchamp and Sigmund Freud and a Maid. The drawing under consideration here features two motifs: a forearm and hand with an outstretched index finger and a profile bust of Marcel Duchamp. Engaging in a game of matching that recalls the effect objects make when reflected in water, both motifs are depicted twice—right-side up and upside down. Baselitz divides his work into two horizontal sections. The ground of the top portion is left in reserve; pen strokes outline the motifs, as though incised into the paper. The lower section, mostly covered in a wash, inverts the figures’ tones in the manner of solarized photographs. This technical choice, reminiscent of an approach the artist used in his 1998 Russenbilder, recalls Marcel Duchamp’s interest in photography and its reproductive techniques and pays homage to the curiosity of the man André Breton considered “the most intelligent of the century.” Duchamp was a frequent source of inspiration for Baselitz, particularly in his 2000 series Im Walde von Blainville. The artist depicts him, though, in an unflattering and unexpected light, especially given Duchamp’s elegance and sophistication. His only accessory a constricting and somewhat plebeian bowtie, Duchamp’s face appears craggy with pursed lips, his eyes stare vacantly into the void, and his straight hair falls limply to his neck. E.B.
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