Richter Cycle: Funeral
Title: Beerdigung 1988. Oil on Canvas 200 cm X 320 cm This largest painting of the cycle is of the massive funeral of Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin, and Jan-Carl Raspe in a Stuttgart cemetery a week after their deaths in Stammheim prison in 1977. Ensslin’s father had struggled to find a cemetery that would allow [read all]
Richter Cycle: Dead 1, 2, 3
title: Tote, 1, 2, und 3 1988. Oil on Canvas 62 cm X 73 cm These three paintings are alternately-sized versions of the same source photo. The original image is of the dead body of Ulrike Meinhof, who hung herself in her Stammheim prison cell on Mother’s Day in 1976. The original image is shocking, [read all]
Richter Cycle: Man Shot Down 1 & 2
title: Erschossener 1 und 2 1988. Oil on Canvas 100.5 cm X 140.5 cm These two paintings feature alternate versions of an image of a dead Andreas Baader in his Stammheim prison cell. The official version of Baader’s death claims that sometime in the night of October 17 and early in the morning of October [read all]
Richter Cycle: Record Player
title: Plattenspieler 1988. Oil on Canvas 62 cm X 83 cm This painting is based on a photograph of Andreas Baader’s phonograph taken after his death. Left on the phonograph is side two of Eric Clapton’s “There’s One in Every Crowd,” on RSO Records (if you look closely you can make barely make out the [read all]
Richter Cycle: Cell
title: Zelle 1988. Oil on Canvas 201 cm X 140 cm This painting depicts Andreas Baader’s cell in Stammheim prison as it was found after Death Night. Among many, the popular image of Baader was of a poorly educated poseur, more interested in violence than theory. Though Baader may have come to his revolutionary career [read all]
Richter Cycle: Hanged
title: Erhängte 1988. Oil on Canvas 201 cm X 140 cm This haunting image is of the dead body of Gudrun Ensslin, hanging from her Stammheim prison cell. It is the first image of the cycle to directly depict events from October 19, 1977, also known as Death Night. According to the official version of events, [read all]
Richter Cycle: Confrontation 1, 2, 3
title: Gegenüberstellung 1, 2, und 3 1988. Oil on Canvas 112 cm X 102 cm These three images are of Gudrun Ensslin, girlfriend of Andreas Baader, and the true female leader of the Baader-Meinhof Gang. The images come from full-body images taken when Ensslin was in police custody. I believe that they are from [read all]
Richter Cycle: Arrest 1 & 2
title: Arrest 1 and Arrest (Festnahme 1 und 2) 1988. Oil on Canvas 92 cm X 126.5 cm These two paintings are derived from images seared into the minds of most Germans who came of age in the 1970s and before. They are from the capture of Andreas Baader, Jan-Carl Raspe, and Holger Meins [read all]
Richter Cycle: Youth Portrait
title: Youth Portrait (Jugendbildnis) 1988. Oil on Canvas 72.5 cm X 62 cm Youth Portrait is derived from a photo of Ulrike Meinhof that had been mistakenly identified by Richter and others as a youth “glamour” photo of Meinhof. According Robert Storr’s MOMA book about the exhibit, Meinhof’s former husband Klaus Rainer Röhl indicates that the [read all]
Podcast 24: Artist David Chesworth Interview
David Chesworth, Australian artist has a new exhibit exploring Gerhard Richter’s magisterial and controversial Baader-Meinhof cycle of paintings. I speak with Chesworth about his exhibit and the representation of history through art. [display_podcast]
Podcast 20: Interview with art legend Robert Storr
Robert Storr, Dean of the Yale Graduate school of Art and formerly of the Museum of Modern Art, discusses his acquisition of Gerhard Richter’s famous cycle of Baader-Meinhof-inspired paintings for MoMA. [display_podcast]