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The Long Game: Georg Baselitz and Rafael Nadal: Kind of Part 2
Description
A 15-foot painting stops Ty cold, and it kicks off a conversation that keeps getting bigger: what does it look like to keep making serious work when you’re old, tired, and no longer trying to prove anything to anyone? After a London walk from a heavy Tracy Emin experience to Georg Baselitz at White Cube, we can’t shake the feeling that we just saw a masterclass in artistic longevity.
We connect that late-career power to the Raphael Nadal Netflix documentary and the brutal reality of sport: your mind can still be hungry while your body forces the ending. Painting works differently. Baselitz talks about continuing “despite an almost complete absence of pressure,” and we wrestle with whether a younger artist can reach a version of that freedom sooner. We get into confidence built on discipline and time, the role of career momentum and visibility, and the trap of making work on other people’s terms.
From upside-down paintings to walker marks dragged through wet paint, Baselitz becomes a case study in adapting studio practice to aging and illness without shrinking the ambition. We also unpack self-doubt, the difference between public failure and inner conviction, and why time tells in art more than any single moment. If you care about creative discipline, expressionism, contemporary art, and building a sustainable art career, this one goes straight to the nerve. Subscribe, share with a friend, leave a review, and tell us: what helps you stay free in the studio when the pressure spikes?
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