Buchloh examines Richter's paintings and sculptures and discusses western and eastern influences on his art.

The fact that Richter worked in both figurative and abstract painting complicates the understanding of his main artistic direction. "48 portraits" (Richter, 1972), initially made for Venice Biennale and constituted of portraits of important figures in (European) science were working with the reachable time frame: at the moment of first exposition some of the figures were alive and some were recently gone, so they were perceived by the viewers not much as "history", but more as (cultural) "memory". What did this trick meant in the perception of the work? Was it taken more personal by the viewers? How the work's perception had changed since 1972? How it can be perceived by different generations: one that remember Stravinsky alive and one being born after all the portrayed figures had been already dead. The other interesting fact about Richter's "48 portraits" is the journey from initial archival (encyclopaedical) photographic images to monumental (in medium itself and in installation as well) painted portraits to photoreproductions of those paintings. How did the photoreproductions changed the meaning of the paintings? Did them make paintings more "democratic" and accessible? Was the form of a painterly portrait invalid and unactual generally in 1972? How it works now? How is this connected with the hierarchies?

Buchloh also quotes Alexander and Margarete Mitscherlic describing emotional state of German citizens after Hitler's capitulation and dethronement of the cult of personality - melancholia. If this survey would be applicable to post-Putin's era? How does it correlate with emotional state of USSR citizens after Stalin's death?

Except discussed above question of hierarchies, related to the invalidity of a painterly portrait as a status marker, this article raises the question of hierarchies through discussion of Richter's sculptural self-portrait - bust, and the place/the row in which this bust puts an artist. How artists bust correspond with Hitler, Stalin and Lenin and their busts? If it means that the role of the dictator is now taken by an artist? Or that the world ruled by dictators is now replaced by the world, ruled by artists? Or is it a futuristic look at the artist's figure place?

#original #reproduction #painting #photography #history #portrait #sculpture #memory #hierarchy