How Bad Is It?

Where: Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden

When: closing September 16, 2018

I read a really scathing review of the Georg Baselitz career retrospective in the Washington Post recently, and when I say really scathing I mean the title included the phrase "overrated hack."  So, rather than approaching this show with my usual fear and loathing, I went to the Hirshhorn looking forward to seeing just how bad this would be.

And it is bad.  Everything is ugly, like Tolstoy's unhappy families, each in its own way.  Those worm headed people in the photograph are what greet you at the door - not my definition of an inviting introduction.

But have no fear, if you don't like this, there's lots of different types of things to follow.  Unfortunately, they're all just tiresome nonsense.  Usually, even in a show I don't care for, there's one thing that I think isn't too awful.  Not so here!  Give the man points for consistency.

The best thing I can say for Baselitz is that, unlike my least favorite artist, Yves Klein, he doesn't sell people gold ingots to throw in the Seine.  I realize that's damning with faint praise, but it's the only praise I have.

According to the wall notes, Baselitz is one of the leading artistic figures of post-WWII Germany.  Poor Germany, if that's the case.  The land of Albrecht Durer is reduced to this?  One shakes one's head in sorrow and pity.  Another wall note tells me that Baselitz was influenced by Mannerist painting, which explains a lot.  Of all the artistic genres to leave by the wayside, Mannerism ranks high on my list.

At one point, he decided to create upside down portraits.  So you have paintings that appear to be straightforward pictures of people, except they're all upside down.  It makes it hard to really look at them, because you're trying to put them right side up in your mind.  My question: does he paint them upside down (which is what I assume he's doing, as there was a quote from him saying how hard it was to get the right perspective), or does he really paint them right side up and then insist they be hung upside down?

Not content to make ugly paintings, he branched out into sculpture.  At least it's not upside down.  The show ends with a piece that is meant to be some sort of homage to Andy Warhol.  It appears to be gigantic wooden legs in high heeled shoes, painted black and tied together at the top.  I'm no Warhol expert, but I can't imagine he would be happy to have something so ugly associated with him.

Verdict: Go for the upside down paintings; stay for the ugly sculpture.  Or don't go at all.