Editing Georg Baselitz (section)

==Life==
Baselitz was born on 23 January 1938, in Deutschbaselitz (now a part of [[Kamenz]], [[Saxony]]), in what was later [[East Germany]]. His father was an elementary school teacher, and the family lived in the local school building.

Baselitz attended the local school in [[Kamenz]]. In its assembly hall hung a reproduction of the painting ''Wermsdorfer Wald'' (1859) by [[Louis-Ferdinand von Rayski]], an artist whose grasp of [[Realism (arts)|Realism]] was a formative influence on Baselitz.<ref name="franzke" /> Baselitz also became interested in the writings of [[Jakob Böhme]]. By the age of 15, he had already painted portraits, religious subjects, still lifes, and landscapes, some in a [[futurism|futuristic]] style.

In 1955, he applied to study at the Kunstakademie in [[Dresden]] but was rejected. In 1956, he successfully enrolled at the Hochschule für Bildende und Angewandte Kunst in [[East Berlin]]. There he studied under professors [[Walter Womacka]]<ref>{{Cite web|date=2015-06-18|title="Am Strand" zu Ulbrichts 70. Geburtstag|url=https://www.ddr-museum.de/de/blog/archive/am-strand-zu-ulbrichts-70-geburtstag-walter-womacka-als-lieblingskuenstler-der-sed|access-date=2021-07-08|website=DDR Museum|language=de}}</ref> and [[Herbert Behrens-Hangler]] and befriended [[Peter Graf (painter)|Peter Graf]] and [[Ralf Winkler]] (later known as A. R. Penck). After two semesters, however, he was expelled for "sociopolitical immaturity" because he did not comply with the socialist ideas of the [[German Democratic Republic|DDR]].{{citation needed|date=February 2019}}

In 1957, he resumed his studies at the [[Hochschule der Künste]] in [[West Berlin]], where he settled down and met his future wife, Johanna Elke Kretzschmar. In 1961, he attended [[Hann Trier]]'s master class and completed his studies the following year. Trier's classes were described as a creative environment largely dominated by the [[gestural abstraction]] of [[Tachism]] and [[Art Informel]].<ref name="franzke">{{cite book|last=Franzke|first=Andreas|title=George Baselitz|publisher=Prestel-Verlag|year=1989|isbn=3-7913-0947-1|location=Munich|page=17}}<!--|access-date=2011-03-18--></ref> At the Hochschule der Künste, Baselitz immersed himself in the theories of [[Ernst Wilhelm Nay]], [[Wassily Kandinsky]], and [[Kasimir Malevich]]. During this time he became friends with [[Eugen Schönebeck]] and [[Benjamin Katz]]. Art historian Andreas Franzke describes Baselitz's primary artistic influences at this time as [[Jackson Pollock]] and [[Philip Guston]].<ref name="franzke" />

In 1961, he adopted the name Georg Baselitz as a tribute to his home town.

Since 2013, he and his wife have lived in [[Salzburg]] in [[Austria]] and both obtained also Austrian citizenship in 2015.<ref name="orf20150527">{{cite web | url=http://salzburg.orf.at/news/stories/2713130/ | title=Maler Georg Baselitz jetzt Österreicher | publisher=[[ORF (broadcaster)|ORF]] | date=27 May 2015 | access-date=14 July 2015}}</ref> He married Kretzschmar in 1962 and is the father of two sons, Daniel Blau and Anton Kern, both gallerists.