Die große Nacht im Eimer

Die große Nacht im Eimer

Artist	Georg Baselitz
Year	1963
Type	oil on canvas
Dimensions	250 cm × 180 cm (98 in × 71 in)
Location	Museum Ludwig, Cologne

Die große Nacht im Eimer (The Big Night Down The Drain) is a painting by Georg Baselitz. It was painted in the years 1962/1963 and hangs today in the Museum Ludwig in Cologne.

One interpretation is that the painting shows a boy after masturbating, while another is that it depicts a hideous dwarf with a penis of grotesque size. In both cases, the focus of the painting is sex, and Baselitz's primary objective was to shock his audience. Baselitz said he used the erect organ "as an aggressive act or shock"^[1], and it was this attitude the genitals represent that was offensive.

In October 1963, the work, as well as the picture Der nackte Mann, shown in the west-Berliner gallery Werner & Katz, was seized by the public prosecutor's office because of immorality. The criminal proceedings ended in 1965 with the return of the pictures.^{[citation needed]}

Notes and references

1. ^ Dahlem, Franz, "An Imaginary Conversation between Baselitz, Dahlem and Pickshaus", in: Georg Baselitz, Muthesius, Angelika & Derneburg, Detlev, Köln, Benedikt Taschen, 1990, p. 27 ISBN 3-8228-0419-3