Norman Rosenthal

Georg Baselitz: Making Art after Auschwitz and Dresden explores the artist's brilliant career through his 2007 retrospective exhibition at London's Royal Academy of Arts. Accompanied by curator Norman Rosenthal, who first exhibited paintings by Baselitz in the early 1970's, the artist discusses painting, sculpture and the trajectory of his work. The exhibit emphasizes Baselitz ability to create imagery that deals unflinchingly with his position as a post-war artist. In responding to contemporary experience and exploring his own painterly instincts, Baselitz creates symbols which reflect deep-rooted human dilemmas and concerns.

Rome, AD 303. Emperor Diocletian demotes his favourite, Sebastian, from captain of the palace guard to the rank of common soldier and banishes him to a remote coastal outpost where his fellow soldiers, weakened by their desires, turn to homosexual activities to satisfy their needs. Sebastian becomes the target of lust for the officer Severus, but repeatedly rejects the man's advances. Castigated for his Christian faith, he is tortured, humiliated and ultimately killed.