Adieu 1982

Georg Baselitz made this painting ‘Adieu’ with oil paint, but we don't know exactly when. The canvas is a battlefield of yellow and white squares, each a thick impasto slab, against which the figures are casually strewn. The figures are, of course, upside down, like much of Baselitz's work from 1969 onwards. Paint application is quick and loaded, the colors are high key, with acidic yellow and chalky white jostling for space. Look at the squares where the underpainting peeps through, or the linear slashes which delineate the limbs, there’s an urgent physicality to it all. Baselitz isn’t trying to trick us into seeing something, but rather showing us how the image comes into being through a dance of materials. That central white square, a void amidst the riot of color, is echoed by the small yellow square within it. It's a nod to Malevich, perhaps, and a reminder that art is always in conversation with itself. Like a conversation between friends, art thrives on ambiguity and is all the more fun for it.