A London exhibition titled 'The Heroes', featuring history paintings by the German artist Georg Baselitz, has opened. Baselitz, who died this year, helped plan the exhibition of what are described as his most astonishing history paintings.
Born in 1938, Baselitz experienced Hitler's Germany and the Second World War as a young child. He later grew up in communist East Germany before moving to the west and becoming an artist. The exhibition presents a vision of modern history, conveying feelings of horror, disgust, and guilt.
The paintings in 'The Heroes' series were started by Baselitz in 1965. One work, 'Mit Rote Fahne' (With the Red Banner), depicts an exhausted soldier holding a half-lowered flag in a wasteland. Another painting, 'Ein Moderner Maler' (A modern painter), shows an artist with both hands caught in man-traps, sitting defeated in military-looking clothes.