1987 225 cm x 200 cm Catalogue Raisonné: 648-2
Oil on canvas
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In 2004 Richter published a book, War Cut. Of it the NY Times wrote in an essay by Jan Thorn-Pricker:
The topic is the war in Iraq. Again, ambiguity is a theme,
but unlike his earlier political work, the result is colorful and abstract. The
book consists of collages: 216 photographic details of Mr. Richter's 1987
painting ''No. 648-2,'' accompanied by an equal number of newspaper articles
from The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on March 20 and 21, 2003, the beginning
days of the war. The result links two normally unrelated mediums, creating a
hybrid commentary that can be seen as a kind of absurd historical novel.
The article made me very curious. I went to the then arts
bookstore on Granville and Broadway called Oscar’s. I asked Oscar about the
book. He placed it in my hands. It was a thing of wonder I could not afford to
buy. But it left a lasting impression on how an artist could protest in his own
way the iniquities of war machines.
In this Friday’s March 6 article on a Richter exhibition at
the Met’s Marcel Brauer Gallery I read with interest that this 90 year old man
may consider this to be one of his last exhibitions. But important to me was
something reviewer Jason Farago wrote to close his essay:
For 60 years, he has treated uncertainty as an ethical duty. That remains true even at this final celebration, and with every pass of the squeegee [one of Richter’s painting techniques] he has modeled how an artist can create in the face of doubt, face down the fear of wrongness, mistrust oneself and still fight on.
That is the priceless example he offers today’s young
artists, whose every mistake or hesitation gets pounced on by the digital
Savonarolas. So much dogmatism out there, so much high-volume moralizing. The
voice we need to hear is the voice that says: I don’t know. I’m not sure. I am
still thinking. I’m still working.
Those are words to inspire this old man to keep kicking for a while longer.
Exciting photographic possibilites for 2020
Those are words to inspire this old man to keep kicking for a while longer.
Exciting photographic possibilites for 2020