A workshop im hard at work here i cant 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 sort of is in london the collection of count dot com is going under the hammer masterworks of the Twentieth Century including nine by the young boss and. Gilt boss and its his paintings all sinister and aggressive at this junction they fetched record prices. One by a paid three point two Million Pounds for. Not a man with a giant found us dating from one thousand nine hundred sixty five the highest price ever paid for a boss in its. Full gale doesnt excuse the inexhaustible creator of pitches stagnation is a foreign word time and again he comes up with reinterpretations of well known mentees dogs hang lightened airy in the gallery of his dales little patch in south book posits is a shy construct basel 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 its all for me one of the most important artists of this century its the mission basel its a because a figure because you feel good in two thousand and seven so Norman Rosenthal devoted the role academys biggest ever retrospective to georg boston it. Socrates foolishly offered us as a whole 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 dont wish to me just with your eyes 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 his works hang in the leading museums worldwide even so hes been askin when it comes to criticism. In love it or the bottle to put on a fish ive always noticed with basil its that hes incredibly sensitive to statements he sees as negative almost like a seismograph always thought only i get. Color shows hoffman recently retired curator at munichs modern art museum and the pin that could take them all down the exhibit it thousand hits as early as the one nine hundred seventy is she devoted a whole room. Him presenting a crosssection of his different periods to me as a me forward pain design 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 africa not and memories drawings his friends say he absorbs everything like a sponge one of those who infused about father that very early on with the collector and guta who are they became friends. In the. Puzzle this is if you can peer over there at it our closets is a family man with a nice wife and well brought up children who had sold macand out i just us from the outside he could be a senior Civil Servant and it resulted. In two thousand and six thousand its moved from northern germany to that area setting up his consulate den a book in the lower saxony he settled on the shores of lake ama munich the occupies expensive premises built by architects have soaked and. Only one door different time for a change boss admits is supposed to have said. As im sure not to hear hes a very natural frank and so for short person you dont immediately see hes not just. Too busy other people usually think of artists as rather extravagant in their manner but hes not a toll doesnt it was born in saxony but has declared the spot on lake to be his new home of choice when he sold dan a book also he also sold a large part of his collection to an American Investment bank and it was time to move on his needs when dealing with hes not integrated sure but thats not a precondition thats the case with all celebrities. There are others who are port 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 aunts an inquisitive bunch of mercury here i was. Bustling its lives a reclusive life hidden behind fences and trainees you want to view the artist at work forgetting. I mistrust yeah so mark everything he does is quality was this is in trouble he now lives in a house he commissioned from a very good architect. A bonus. So the very air can take pleasure in the fact that one of germanys leading artists lives here but it was a long journey. In one thousand nine hundred fifty eight bassinets moved to west berlin after being expelled from the academy of visual and applied in the communist east the reason given was social and political in maturity in the pulsating capitalist half of the city the young painter was a man his painting was out of tune with the times he still didnt have a deal. We avoided all and often i said we all had rooms of our own in a big fat chair but basel its his family already had a flat to themselves a party had been announced and i saw a footmarks streaks of paint and so i thought lets go to the studios 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 and they asked us gunnies and they have. 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 into this absolute trust senior. Going to run after days you could pick up a student watercolor for thirty marks that was the going rate times ten makes three hundred dollars a piece well i had fifteen 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 there are three hundred each sort of if we can of. That. Your spirit you imagine. Will have to be set up his gonorrhoea nine hundred sixty three together with benyamin taps they represented basel its along with other german painters of the wild school sitting right here to just. Put this like i lost it on and. There are still works by basel its in the galleries depository early works even though he hasnt been basel it says official dealer for some. The early work by gail basel its was not in tune with the times it is dark in color dark psychologically and obscene his paintings were provocative most especially the big night down the drain hey lets do this in the early years of germanys affluent Society People didnt want to see this filth they didnt want to figures at all they wanted nothing to do with the past they didnt want this 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 had finished confronting it 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 nytol but they treated it as an episode you could easily forget i had episode of argument over the beats 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 in style. Alongside bozza lids and his dilemma share them with the painters a are paying him and off and mark is good at. Marcus pats painter and sculptor in his studio as an old friend and colleague in those basel it says what well his op was to stop with and sold an act of rebellion. Is gonna buy the album and 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 out. Will betide 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 full and dont want to sit in a divan theyre bigger for this is for ending in the m. R. I. Dr. Bassett 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. Some data the scandal was got up by me and martin 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 a plus b. Liberty arrived promptly the next day to cover the palm they said into. It worked the Public Prosecutor stepped in the pictures were confiscated the press had a field day in the sun was it just an Advertising Campaign for branson. Does a lot of promotion first though 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 bad it afford your slow. We were both unsuccessful artists and basel its was subjected to more tax than i was even by the Public Prosecutor i believe. Hopped. Off 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 so if you do become shufflers it just gets out of the. Time that this whole litany faked his pictures didnt sell any better. Stop im fall for unplugs it was a court case the pictures were confiscated there was a huge outcry in the press they really went for me and i was certainly annoyed to say the least it was very unpleasant as or so it was a strong argument that as i was after this exhibition basel its really turned against berlin and left the city i think he still doesnt like it. He and his family moved to the country and nine hundred seventy five he brought down the book consul never held. His body and kept growing all the attributes of his ought remained abrasive and sinister his reputation as a specific a german painter. And. It is the days of the gods of probably two hes in this tradition hes a german painter he acknowledges his debt to the german expressionists and to auto addicts people say he embraces his ugly painting but can you call do that i believe about it i dont think so you can call them hush and there is certainly a certain harshness in the german art tradition have to. Go in about and deal with the german a psalms this is the tradition in which boston it sees himself as a painter. Wolf torched 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 thats what i did was just ask what does german painting look like. And i began where one does begin with. 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 on the others it is ugly for very definite reasons it doesnt operate on a life size scale things are reduced so theres a particular form of abstraction which people are mostly placed in landscapes where they dont belong for example in a sense or. That. Gayo bassinets first born again can in the village of doj bassinets in saxony in one thousand nine hundred thirty eight his parents were teaches it was only in one thousand and 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 care treatment 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 you know i really dont know what that supposed to mean but on. The korean artists say oh stop it at the burden onto cademy she was in professor botha thats his class in two thousand and three she became his master pupil. I am tired i have 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 paintings off the trolley and put them to one side he only left me some very narrow asia 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 joy dont piss your clothes on to Dennis Ferguson for to hang out cause positives had a few years ago basel its confronted the works of american painters and we exhibited these works here in south spoke and in paris he said he looked at the cooney 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 technique called because it is simply so striking in baghdad so mark cant is this is an effort and if it is like a language the way he uses the brush in the sim should see him to be to order it be sure d. D. 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 an ability and he can listen as i said i can imperiously 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 watch you in the studio bring those companies out of the pool from school work that is. The case in any bassinets does allow himself to be observed at lock he now paints his pictures on the floor but that has not deprived them of any of their momentum. I basel it has 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 sort in your. Bassinets remains true to himself as an artiste. The most effect off 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 selfindulgent depict isnt in custody and the lack of the sphere of to care 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 but his team of this is that hes got a great deal to do with german history he made his head in with out of took i think the transaction off and it it actually fits into so what sahara then she things that arent any heroes anymore anyway 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 my. Knife gods and artist heroes. And his friends. Marcus newton apps on the left. And michelle and them on the right the brave men of the art business. The heads of mission kind of poke at superheroes on provocative i cant follow that argument in their quote illustrations on his view of the artist. As the task to construct such a construct so depiction of the artist as he felt him to be in those days isolated under attack of attack here at. The hearing the pictures serve to point up artistic selfassertion salutes himself calls one of them ideal picture and gift of god on affordable i with elevation. So i know i dont measure but 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 for us in doing that all of us will see it went as its way 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 for his work borders on. Basel its only mentioned him in the title or god that at that was a done in tutor no ask it worked the picture itself is his own idea of himself id say that he seldom. Paton walsh in that subject is in new york in one thousand nine hundred ninety one paid the record price of more than a Million Dollars for look this rishta only way to work its precisely there were men to carry paintings that still make top prices vacillates pictures can be found in all the major museums and collectors a spinoff to. A certain 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 wed 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 emerged. 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 painterly 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. Only for me i know exactly how much it ever 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 georgs invented it that said no hed rather do it alone and thats what he did for the binocular. A simple idea with a huge effect the forest upside down in this way revolutionized traditional Landscape Painting and gave it a new lease of life. People. Thought of battle it is methods 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 used to form the obstruction. The one kid gallery in london on display at boston it serious a fool an eagles an old motif reinterpreted and almost compulsively repeated it refuses to leave the artist to learn. Something to get a scholarship for you see pollock and all the abstract painting which has a sense of quality versus sponsor a shin leash. Discomfort you see the falling if you like as black tears but the subject is of