By the time Georg Baselitz (b. 1938) came to artistic maturity in Germany in the mid-1960s, he had renounced the gestural abstraction prevalent in Europe and America and developed a new aesthetic based upon the figure and its representation as an abstract image.

His bold canvases - which began to feature his signature upside-down figures later in the decade - have brought him international recognition, but only now is his important career the subject of a comprehensive survey, organized by the Guggenheim Museum and traveling to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; and the Nationalgalerie, Berlin.

This monograph, by Guggenheim Deputy Director and Senior Curator Diane Waldman, documents every phase of the artist's career as a painter and sculptor. New translations of many of Baselitz's writings provide additional insight into his radical use of the figure in painting. A chronology, bibliography, and exhibition history are also included.