Galerie Springer in West Berlin was the site of the 1963 scandal that made Baselitz notorious. The gallery, originally Galerie Werner & Katz (founded by Michael Werner and a partner), was renamed after the partner left. In October 1963, Baselitz’s first solo show opened there. Die große Nacht im Eimer was seized by West Berlin prosecutors on charges of obscenity, and Baselitz and Werner were tried for producing and exhibiting pornography.
The trial became a landmark case for artistic freedom in post-war Germany. After two years the charges were downgraded and the painting returned, but the scandal established the pattern of raw figuration as deliberate provocation against polite West German culture. Galerie Springer is the ground zero of the Neo-Expressionist public record.
See also
- die-grosse-nacht-im-eimer — the seized painting
- galerie-michael-werner — Michael Werner’s later Cologne/New York gallery
- Georg Baselitz — the prosecuted artist