After i can basil it is being portrayed in forty five minutes and honored but he doesnt want to take part himself a really. That is attached to a studio is a workshop im hard at work here i can put up with disturbances in the workshop i cant have an audience in there even if its just a camera no way i was on three of it. Was. June two thousand and eleven a sensation that south that is in london the collection of count do economists going under the hammer masterworks of the Twentieth Century including nine by the young boss and. Gilt boss and its his paintings also sinister and aggressive at this junction they fetched record prices. One pile paid three point two Million Pounds for spectrum. Not sears a man with a giant phallus dating from one thousand nine hundred sixty five the highest price ever paid for a boss and its. Basel its in exhaustible creator of pitches stagnation is a foreign word time and again he comes up with reinterpretations of well known motifs dogs hanging light and airy in the gallery of his dales little patch in south book because it is a shy boss and its a certainly one of the very great painters of our age its not just in germany but internationally here certainly appreciated by the art market we see a Continuous Development of this appreciation but its only for me one of the most important artists of the centuries and thats the Mission Model its a picasso figure because you feel good in two thousand and seven so Norman Rosenthal devoted the von academys biggest ever retrospective to georg posited that socrates foolishly offered us as old i dont mean hes as important as picasso but you can talk about him in the same breath as because of this and think of him on this level this could go on and knock him every day as if you are mr minister i dont regard myself as the bearer of any message or as a magician who turns everything he touches to art but as opposed to it works according to and yet hes a star of the art world his works hang in the leading museums worldwide even so hes been a skinned when it comes to criticism. In my view to bother trying to put on a fact ive always noticed with basel it that hes incredibly sensitive to statements he sees as negative almost like a seismograph. Only i get to. Call a show tough man recently retired curator at munichs modern art museum the pin that could take them all down a exhibited thousand hits as early as the one nine hundred seventy is she devoted a whole room to her. Presenting a crosssection of his different periods during my visit me for what pain does on crazy theyre very sensible very deliberate very controlled people know if they do something they know precisely why theyre doing it the you or boss and its not just a painter graphic artist and sculptor hes also a passionate collector of african not and memories drawings his friends say he absorbs everything up to spawn one of those who infused about vows of that very early on with the connector and guta thought they became friends. In the. Puzzle is if you can peer over there at a dark basel its is a family man with a nice wife and well brought up children would have sold the can down our list to us from the outside he could be a senior Civil Servant in his possession. In two thousand and six thousand its not from northern germany to the various setting up his consulate deneb book in lower saxony he settled on the shores of lake ama munich he occupies extensive premises built by architects have soaked and. Only you under or different time for a change boss admits is supposed to have said. As in general cheney is a very natural frank and so for short person you dont immediately see hes not hers. I was too busy shrivel other people usually think of artists as rather extravagant in their manner but hes not at all. And its was born in saxony but has declared the spot on late to be his new home of choice when he so dan about castle he also sold a large part of his collection to an American Investment bank and it was time to move on. Hes not interested sure but thats not a precondition thats the case with all celebrities there are others who are taught houses here we dont say you have to belong we want to leave him in peace after all hes supposed to be creating upgrade and thats why he came specially to bavaria i think some of. The bavarians an inquisitive bunch of mercury here where i was. Bustling its lives and reclusive life hidden behind fences and trainees he wanted the artist at work for to get an. Honest process yeah so mark everything he does is quality. This is interim and he now lives in a house he commissioned from a very good architect a bonus. So the variac can take pleasure in the fact that one of germanys leading artists lives here but it was a long journey. In one nine hundred fifty eight bassinets moved to western in after being expelled from the academy of visual and applied arts in the communist east the reason given was social and political in maturity in the pulse eighteen capitalist half of the city the young painter was an unknown his painting was out of tune with the times he still didnt have a deal. We have what an island governor i said we all had rooms of our own in a big fat chair but bartletts and his family already had a flat to themselves a party had been announced and i saw footmarks streaks of paint and so i thought lets go to the studios and then posits appeared behind me and said pretty roughly what are you doing here i said what am i supposed to do im an art dealer i just want to look into your studio i dont suppose theyll be another chance this is no way he said or and they i guess get us counties and they have as im. Staged in the oven but then he thought a moment and said just a moment ago he squeezed through into the studio and came out holding a small a full folder with ten watercolors i was totally fascinated of this absolute trust senior government going to run after you know those days you could pick up a student watercolor for thirty marks that was the going rate times ten makes three hundred sixty because well i had fifty i said leave the others ill come back he said keep your fifty marks what i said thats a fair price what do you mean he said that three hundred each that if we. Spread cost i will not. Then your spirit you imagine. Will have to set up his gallery in one thousand nine hundred sixty three together with benyamin caps they represented basel its along with other german painters of the wild school that it was here the first. Visit to the offices. There are still works by boston its in the galleries depository early works even though he hasnt been browsing it says official dina for some hands. The early work by gail basil its was not in chin with the times it is dark in color dock psychologically and obscene his paintings were provocative most especially the big night down the drain. In a star in the early years of germanys afterward Society People didnt want to see this filth or they didnt want to figures at all they wanted nothing to do with the past they didnt want these dirty colors they wanted their clean fridge and their shiny car but they didnt want to be confronted with the dirt of the past what i meant intellect africa i finished conflict here and pushed i thought that went hand in hand with the economic miracle in germany people wanted to sweep it all under the carpet i dont mean they wanted to tonight all but they treated it as an episode you could easily forget i had i had episode of argument over the beef i guess in life so i guess the contraband. But there was a group of young painters prepared to confront the past whatever the artist opposition and said among those fighting for a new espresso style. Alongside bartletts and his deal and Michelle Vanna with the painters and you are paying him and off and mark is good and. Marcus did that and turned sculptor in his studio as an old friend and colleague in those parts and it says what well his art was to start with and sought an act of rebellion. Is god and i was a man there was a general consensus that painting should be free of pornography free of smart at most you could paint nudes but it had to be serious all the nude wasnt art were tied those who contravene this noble concept of art as embodying dignity and perfection you must remember these are the terms in which people talked of painting them with the awful and dont want to sit in a divan theyre bigger if it easy for a living in the right doctor. Bassinets shocked Respectable Society that his dark works one exhibition and the vanna and katz gallery sparked a scandal the tabloids had a great time they shared. A handout at the scandal was got up by me in modern british he had good contacts to the hacks in berlin it was the silly season and they needed a headline or two so we gave them one vice squad move in they screamed it was all lies. Did they are the scottish way out from. The Public Prosecutor had never heard of it asked us about it and the applause bulleteer arrived promptly the next day to cover the next tough. Work to the Public Prosecutor stepped in the pictures were confiscated the press had a field day son who was it just an Advertising Campaign for boston. Does a lot of commotion first of all it was a publicity stunt and it worked only we gain nothing from it we didnt have the courage to tell basel its wed made it all up because he was an extremely fragile neurotic type to you have devalued by their forty or so very slow. We were both unsuccessful artists and basel its was subjected to more tax than i was even by the Public Prosecutor i believe the hopped. Up stuff but he was very brave about it i think he may even have been pleased because at least his name became known to the public if it had become shut he could just get out at any. Time did this whole little fact his pictures didnt sell any better. Stop on trial for unplugs it was a court case the pictures were confiscated and there was a huge outcry in the press they really went for me i was certainly annoyed to say the least it was very unpleasant as. It was a strong argument that these are after this exhibition basel its really turned against berlin and left the city i think he still doesnt like it on this. Day and his family moved to the country in one nine hundred seventy five he bought dan above consul never held as high on his body and kept growing all the attributes of his art remained abrasive and sinister his reputation as a specific german painter. That is two days ago i could hardly tell hes in this tradition hes a german painter he acknowledges his debt to the german expressionists and to auto dix people say he embraces his ugly painting but can you call do that i believe about his i dont think so how do you how you can call him hush and there is certainly a certain harshness in the german art tradition have to. Live out and do the german many songs this is the tradition in which pozen it sees himself as a painter. To fall off torch to the accusation of being german you have to see how you cope with that you have to ask what sort of defense you can make as thats what i did was just ask what does german painting look like. And i began where one does begin with do the uncommon in comparison with their contemporaries in italy france or england and here german painting does stand out and it stands out because it is ugly and in the others it is ugly for very definite reasons it doesnt operate on a life size scale things are reduced and theres a particular form of abstraction which people are mostly placed in landscapes where they dont belong for example and i consider. That. Gail bassinets was born again or canon of an egyptian dont sponson its in saxony in nine hundred thirty eight his parents were teachers it was one thousand nine hundred sixty one that he changed his name to that of the village where he spent his childhood already as a teenager he demonstrated his artistic skills in drawings as well as the german harshness. Of patriot and i think its true of all artists that to a certain extent like all of us they bear the stamp of their environment their history so they are bound into this cultural situation but to call him the most german of all german painters i really dont know what that supposed to mean but on. The korean artists say oh stop it at the burnin on to cademy she was in professor boston its cost in two thousand and three she became his monster pupil. Ive had to say and i had painted some really cheerfully colored pictures and one day he came into the studio and took all the brushes and paint off the trolley and put them to one side he only left me some very narrow asian brushes and black and white paint begin with these he said its just dont try to imitate european pain. And dont forget where you come from thats all it will piss you chris ok Dennis Ferguson for two health clubs positives had a few years ago basel its confronted the works of american painters and we exhibited these works here in south school and in pairs he said he looked at the name twice and wanted to imitate the brush strokes of this Great American painter he also looked at the works of Jackson Pollock and hes tried out the dripping technique but for all that he could never escape from his own brush techniques of course because it is simply so striking in so my current is this is enforced and if profit is like a language the way he uses the brush shirish decision to trade order it sure did he said the strength of the stroke develops the trail left by the brush that is so uniquely bartletts that try as he might to learn from other artists he can ultimately not get away from his own technique of to name it well it indeed callison him as that and i said im going to be interesting he can give. You if youre a painter you have to paint for example with your feet or with your nose or from behind or back to front you must take no notice of anyone who might be embarrassing but whos going to want you in the studio with a screen those companies are very cool for july. Cation and they bassinets doesnt allow himself to be observed at lock he now paints his pictures on the floor but that has not deprived them of any of them momentum. I vacillate says never actually achieved harmony hes always been the aggressive painter and thats what sets him apart in the model i could believe in one does not in your. Bassinets remains true to himself as an artiste. The most effect of maybe i need to go back to his most famous group of works i mean the heroes of the hero such can be found in greek antiquity but when we think of Central Europe then theres a particular image of the hero that very strongly bears the mark of Germany Foundation depict isnt and because the deer in the large does feed off to chi for after all that happened in germany and austria in the one nine hundred thirty s. And fortys an artist who maintains this critical detachment and takes up the themes of the hero its a chaotic and but this is theme of this is that its got a great deal to do with german history is he made his head and get out of to question the transaction often it gets authority so whats a heritage then she things that arent any heroes anymore you know its a target for him a brave man simply someone praised in song with tattoos in his honor someone who does Something Special like a knife god actually in my. Life gods and artist heroes. And his friends. On the left. And michelle and then on the right the brave men of the art business. Did that mission kind of poke at superheroes provocative i cant follow that argument and falsely their quote illustrations on his view of the artist. As as the dash to construction site the construct the depiction of the artist as he felt him to be in those days isolated under attack attack here at. The hearing the pictures serve to point up artistic selfassertion bassinets himself calls one of them ideal picture a gift of god on affordable i with elevation. So i know the nature of what i dont draw profession but a situation and attitude which was very aggressive and turned its back on what was happening in berlin and elsewhere different to us. But all of us will see that went as its why for example. On the way to work is a collage of the whole situation. Was a painter from saxony thats important and hes not held in high regard his work borders on. Basel its only mentioned him in the title or and thats how does it and tittered mascot worked the picture itself is his own idea of himself id say. Thats in washington at saturdays in new york in one thousand nine hundred ninety one a buyer paid the record price of more than a Million Dollars for look at this race down on the way to walk its precisely the romantic era paintings that still make top prices tassel its pictures can be found in the major museums and collectors the spin off. If youre doing consider me he is of course an artist who never sticks to a cycle for very long but always quickly moves on to the next we often prefer him to stick a bit longer to a particular series simply because the demand is there for completed groups of works but this curiosity this desire to jump from one thing to the next that fascinates me too in that sense every visit his studio is a surprise because you never know what youre going to get to see but its famous. Its always the next thing while youve still got the last one in your head youre surprised because the next ones theyre already in. The home market the bartletts is an upside down motif apparently a trick maintaining to this game. That no two hundred. Sixty nine bartletts has been standing his motives on their head this trick allows him to treat the subject more objective lee he can deflect attention from the obvious the magic statement and direct it towards the purely painterly as he puts it is it only for me i know its after i had called me and said i have it i know how to do it im going to paint abstract great i said then ill paint things on the head too no he said i just wanted to tell my friends so we must all paint things on their heads for a year because gales invented it that said no hed rather do it alone and thats what he did for that one argument. A simple idea with a huge effect on the forest upside down in this way bartlett revolutionized traditional Landscape Painting and gave it a new lease of life. Toward a battle is his method of inverting pictures is only possible when its deliberately seen as abstract otherwise it would be just silly to paint the world on its head thats not enough there must be some intellectual contemporary reference and in that sense its the highest form of abstraction to form the abstracts on. T