Two figures drift apart, one seemingly dissolving, the other receding, caught in a suspended moment. Baselitz painted this separation over weeks, deliberately repositioning them further from each other on the canvas. The artist himself noted that "one of them is only half there, while the other is going away," a direct reflection of the title, "Adieu." Viewers are compelled to grapple with the raw lines and marks in the oil on canvas, rather than seeking a mimetic reality, a deliberate strategy Baselitz employed since the late 1960s by rendering figures upside-down. What truly makes this composition resonate is the chequerboard background, which Baselitz likened to "a starter's flag of a grand prix race floating in my imagination." This unexpected connection to speed and beginnings strangely frames an image of ending and dissolution, leaving a lingering tension between departure and the sudden rush of a new race.