German abstract artist Gerhard Richter's four-part Holocaust painting series is about to go on display this weekend in the city of Baden-Baden. The exhibit has attracted its share of controversy.
Image: Gerhard Richter, 2016
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Holocaust painting goes on display in Baden-Baden
German abstract artist Gerhard Richter's four-part Holocaust painting is about to go on show this weekend in the city of Baden-Baden. The exhibit doesn't come without controversy.
Image: Gerhard Richter, 2016
Birkenau - hiding the Nazis' death factory
Gerhard Richter's "Birkenau" is made up of giant tables of color, which largely appear to be overcast in shades of grey. Added color accent of green and red permeate the canvases, while concealing the original background images taken inside the concentration camp in 1944. Rather than illustrating the Holocaust, Richter skillfully hides its horrors through abstraction.
Image: Gerhard Richter, 2016
Richter's "Atlas" of genocide
Richter has spent the majority of his lifetime collecting Holocaust-related information – a subject of particular interest to Germany's most venerated contemporary artist. He refers to his massive compilation, which encompasses photographs, newspaper clippings and other documents, as the "Atlas."
Image: Gerhard Richter 2013
A recurring theme
This oil painting from 1971 is also based on documents from Gerhard Richter's Atlas, and will be exhibited in Baden-Baden alongside "Birkenau." Richter gave this image a rather elusive name: "Ausschnitt" - which translates as "section" or "cutting."
Image: Gerhard Richter, 2015
Yellow rectangles as far as the eye can see
Another piece of abstract art produced by Gerhard Richter will also be shown at the exhibition at the Museum Frieder Burda in Baden-Baden. "Six Yellow" almost appears to be a color Chart, and could easily be confused with Sigmar Polke's "With Yellow Squares," which will also be shown at the same exhibit.
Image: Gerhard Richter, 2016
The school of abstract expressionism
Other artists highlighted in the exhibit include Willem de Kooning, one of the most important representatives of abstract expressionism in the United States. With an emphasis on evoking emotion, painters like de Kooning sought to escape perfection, sensibility and conformity. Like Gerhard Richter, de Kooning also used abstraction to address shocking issues.
Image: VG Bild-Kunst Bonn 2015
A reluctant record breaker
Gerhard Richter ranks highly as one of Germany's leading and most expensive artists. His artworks have repeatedly broken their own records at auction. But the 83-year-old artist from Dresden does not seem to care much about the lucrative business that art can be. Richter says that the skyrocketing prices fetched at auction for his works are proof of the "ludicrous" nature of today's art world.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/H. Schmidt
A unique private collection
The Museum Frieder Burda is a private collection situated next door to the State Art Museum in Baden-Baden. The building is based on blueprints by architect Richard Meier, and houses the Frieder Burda estate's art collection - one of Europe's largest publishers. The Museum highlights modern and contemporary art in addition to special exhibits, including Gerhard Richter's "Birkenau."
Image: Gerhard Richter, 2016
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Now 83, Gerhard Richter painted "Birkenau" in 2014, drawing on photographs that a Jewish prisoner had taken secretly in Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1944. The atrocities originally depicted in the photographs are not visible in Richter's work. He painted over them in black, red, green and grey hues. More than 1 million people died at the Nazi death camp, the majority of whom were Jews.
"Birkenau" is Richter's first work to explore the Nazi terror. The artist says he took an interest in the Holocaust early on. In the 1960s, he began collecting photos that documented the genocide.
Richter's art is some of Germany's most expensiveImage: picture-alliance/dpa/A. Burgi
Critics say the paintings merely depict - and therefore glorify - the horrors of the Holocaust despite the layers of abstraction hiding the original photographs.
"Birkenau" will be shown alongside other works by Richter and other artists at the Museum Frieder Burda until May. Richter is one of Germany's leading artists, and his works fetch a premium at sales.
