Die große Nacht im Eimer (The Big Night Down the Drain) is an oil on canvas painting by the German painter Georg Baselitz.
One interpretation is that the painting shows a boy after masturbating, while another is that it depicts a hideous dwarf (with Hitler hairdo) with a penis of grotesque size.
The art historian Klaus Gallwitz described the motif: “The figure, whose physique is reminiscent of a boy, stands with legs apart and holds an oversized phallus in his left hand.
He looks past the viewer.” The slender figure stands in extreme contrast to the overemphasized masculinity: “The shape of the face, like the upper body covered with informal brush strokes, has no other physiognomic features apart from the eyes and a large ear.”[2] In the same year, Baselitz created another painting of sexual content with the same title (oil on canvas, 180 × 165 cm), now in a private collection.
[5] In October 1963, the work, as well as the painting Der nackte Mann, shown in the West Berlin gallery Werner & Katz, was seized by the public prosecutor's office because of immorality.