Emilio Vedova - Georg Baselitz

Baselitz and Vedova first met in Berlin in the early 1960s. At that time, Vedova had received a grant from the DAAD [German Academic Exchange Service] and was working on his 7-part installation Absurd Berlin Diary, in line with Dadaist examples. Baselitz and Vedova shared not only a long-standing, intensive friendship, but also appreciation of each other's artistic approach. Baselitz had already purchased a work by Vedova in 1957, through the Galerie Springer, which represented both artists and held Vedova's first solo exhibition in Berlin that year. Baselitz recounts: "I bought a picture by Emilio, his Universal Manifesto (1957) [...] as a document, my first view through the west window in Berlin, an abstract [?] and all the heart could desire. With regard to this picture, people kept telling me Franz Kline was better ? but he isn't! [...] Emilio loved ambushes, he was a partisan, he loved the revolution, the grand gesture, Expressionism, and me. But I'm not an Expressionist, and I despise the revolution; at best, we can produce paintings, maybe even some good ones. I used to make fun of him, and he'd look at me in bewilderment. Annabianca understood everything better" (Georg Baselitz, 2007). After Vedova's death in 2006, Baselitz made a series of black-and-white tributes to Emilio Vedova (Omaggio a Vedova), first shown in the Venice Pavilion at the 2007 Biennale, in combination with three-dimensional works by Vedova. This was the origin of the idea for the Salzburg project. In 2008, the Berlinische Galerie also held an exhibition of works by both artists. 0Exhibition: Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Salzburg, Austria (23.05-11.07.2015).