Gerhard Richter - Beirut - Beirut Art Center

Gerhard Richter -BeirutEDUCATIONALWORKSHEETGerhard Richter: “A painted picture has more reality than a photograph, becausea picture iself has more of a character of an object, because it is visibly paintedby hand, materially produced in tangible ways.”PAINTING VS PHOTOGRAPHY: One of the key elements of Gerhard Richter's work is the interplaybetween painting and photography.Gerhard Richter paints using photographs as sources, match each source to one of Richter's works:- photographs from the media ________________________- family mementos ________________________- photographs taken by Richter ________________________Richter also uses photographs of his paintings in order to create new works of art, find one examplewhere:- Richter photographs his own paintings to create 'editions' ________________________- he uses photography to examine his paintings under different light conditions and from differentangles________________________

Overpainted Photographsi ABSTRACTION is a type of artthat does not attempt to representreality but seeks to achieve itseffect using shapes, forms, colors,and textures. Abstraction tries tomaintain a degree of independencefrom visual references to the world.Many of the works you will see in this exhibition are called 'overpaintedphotographs'. The technique used by Richter is very simple: he paints on topof photographs. However, the reasons for doing this are more complicated andalso important for understanding Richter's work.Does the technique for applying paint in the overpainted photographs used byRichter remind you of his Abstract paintings or figurative paintings?_______________________________________________________________The photographs that Richter paints over are taken by him. Do you thinkthese works are photographs or paintings?_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________i FIGURATION is a type ofart that uses forms that arerecognisably derived from life.Do you think these works are abstract or figurative?__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Museum VisitMuseum Visit is a series of 234 overpainted photographs made by Gerhard Richter last year. The photographs were takenduring a major retrospective exhibition of his work at Tate Modern in London.One of the interesting things about this series is how the paintinteracts with the people in the photographs. Write down a fewwords to describe this interaction:________________________________________________________________________________________________________How are the works arranged in Museum Visit? Can you, forexample, see a narrative, a story?________________________________________________________________________________________________________Tate Modern in London is the most visited museum for modernand contemporary art in the world. Every year, almost 5 millionpeople visit the museum - that is more than the population ofLebanon! The photographs in this work depict a visit to thismuseum. Then, the paint interferes or comments on this visit.What do you think Richter is trying to say?________________________________________________________________________________________________________A RETROSPECTIVE is an exhibition that showsworks from a long period of an artist's career.In the case of Gerhard Richter, who has beenpainting and exhibiting for over 40 years, aretrospective exhibition shows the developmentin an artist's style, technique and interests.CurtainRichter was famous for making paintings using images from photographs. Thesephotographs were usually either personal mementos or taken from the media, suchas newspapers and magazines. But, this painting is surprising because it was madeentirely from Richter's imagination of what a curtain looks like.How can you tell that this is a curtain and not an abstract painting?____________________________________________________________________Richter is very interested in works that engage with the idea of seeing through things,such as windows, glass, mirrors. How does this curtain compare to this theme?________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

PortraitsIn this section, we will explore three portraits by Gerhard Richter exhibited here.The first is Uncle Rudi a painting he made in 1965. He painted the picture from aphotograph of his uncle, wearing Nazi uniform. From the title of the painting, weknow that the person wearing the uniform is related to the artist. Richter was oneof the first German artists to deal with Germany's Nazi past - the subject was ataboo.Why do you think Gerhard Richter is highlighting his personal relationship to theperson wearing Nazi uniform in the photograph?______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Do you notice the way Richter has purposefully blurred the image? He is very famousfor his technique of blurring paintings. Why do you think he does this here?______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Betty (see front cover) is a painting of Gerhard Richter's daughter made in 1988. But, the painting was made from aphotograph taken in 1977. Therefore, the act of painting involved the act of looking backwards.How is looking backwards represented in this painting?_____________________________________________________________Betty is depicted looking at a painting by Gerhard Richter. How can you tellthat she is looking at a painting?__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Often, when Richter paints from photographs, he creates an effect ofblurring. Here, there is very little blurring. How does this affect our readingof the painting?__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________d. t.Compare and contrast Gerhard Richter's Betty (see front cover) withCasper David Friedrich's painting on the right, Woman at a Window. Thinkabout the different things the two women are looking at.The theme of 'looking backwards' is very common in Romantic art from the 19th century. It is used as a way ofinviting the viewer into the image and hence into another reality. On the right is an example by Casper DavidFriedrich, a famous Romantic artist from the 19th century who has had a strong impact on Gerhard Richter's work.The third set of portraits is called Eight Student Nurses and was originally made byGerhard Richter in 1966.These portraits are copied from media images of 8 student nurses who were brutallymurdered in Chicago. The portraits were taken by the press from the nurses' universityyear book and printed in newspapers. The pictures are blurred, which increases ourappetite for details about the women: the story behind their death. But the blur alsoimplies Richter's refusal to tell the story by weakening the intruding stare of massmedia.A portrait implies making an image of someone that distinguishes them from other people. Knowing this, how could yousay that Richter subverts the genre of portrait painting here?__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Gerhard Richter: "Death and suffering always have been an artistic theme. Basically it is thetheme. We’ve eventually weaned ourselves away from it, with our nice, tidy lifestyle."