Georg Baselitz

I visit the Royal Academy to view a retrospective of the German artists work. It is dark, gorey, confused, bleak and angry and includes well known paintings "B for Larry" (pictured), "Oberon" and "Big Night Down the Drain" which is a gruesome self-portrait of a boy masturbating. The painting was seized by the police at its showing in 1961 and kick-started Baselitz's career, which began in earnest in the 1950s. He was otherwise trained in East Germany before moving to West Berlin. During his formative years, Baselitze was profoundly effected by Germany 's wretchedness during and following the War - and his work seeks to communicate its deprivation shockingly. And he succeeds.