1999.285.27, Gerhard Richter, 48 Portraits: Anton Webern, photograph, 1998

GENERAL DESCRIPTION

Gerhard Richter’s 48 Portraits is a series of forty-eight black and white photographs of his own 1972 oil paintings of the same name, painted for the German Pavilion at the 1972 Venice Biennale. Inspired by the Neoclassical architecture of the pavilion and its association with Nazi Germany, Richter chose subjects from 288 photographs collected from encyclopedias and dictionaries, and eventually narrowed down to forty-eight men. The original oil paintings resemble soft-focus black and white photographs and feature busts of white, male philosophers, composers, writers, and scientists from the Western world, all born between 1824 and 1904. Subjects of the portraits include Albert Einstein (1999.285.25), Gustav Mahler (1999.285.15), Thomas Mann (1999.285.19), Franz Kafka (1999.285.24), and Oscar Wilde (1999.285.40). In tandem with a uniformity of dress and pose, Richter's 48 Portraits are unified and homogenized by the soft grisaille forms. Though adamant that the 48 Portraits hold no personal meaning, Richter does admit to working with the concept of national identity. In a 2002 interview with the curator Robert Storr, the artist identified the ‘father problem’–or rather the absence of the father figure–as typically German, saying, "That is the reason for such agitation; that is why this work has such a disquieting effect."

This edition of photographs further explores themes seen in other works by Richter, especially his interest in mechanically produced, supposedly inauthentic images and objects. He deliberately plays with the representation of photographic and printing techniques to make plain that these are prints of photographs of paintings of photographs. In other words, the "models" for Richter's works are not the things themselves, but previous representations of these things. Richter is making pictures of pictures.

Drawn from

Charles Wylie, DMA unpublished material, 2001.
Dietmar Elger and Hans Ulrich Obrist, eds., Gerhard Richter: Writings, 1961–2007, (New York : D.A.P./Distributed Art Publishers 2009), 422.

NOTES

Katherine: All 48 portraits will have this general description, unless you would prefer something different. I'm only sending you one, so you don't have to wade through all of them.

DMA unpublished material = acquisition justification
research notes:, from SF MOMA website, Colleen Carroll, The University of Edinburgh, November 2013

The portraits were originally presented in a row and ordered according to the orientation of the figures’ heads. The gazes were arranged facing from the centre to the left and from the centre to the right, with the only portrait portraying a figure facing directly forward – that of Franz Kafka – situated in the center
The original paintings were completed for the German Pavilion at the 1972 Venice Biennale following the artist’s nomination as Germany’s representative. Though originally reluctant to participate in the Biennale, Richter decided that the architecture of the German Pavilion – which was reconstructed in 1938 and reflects the architecture of National Socialist Germany – was ideal for his project. He has stated that were it not for the neoclassical architecture of the pavilion, 48 Portraits would not exist: ‘The plan to paint 48 Portraits [was] very old … When I received the invitation to go to Venice, it was immediately clear … that the spatial conditions were ideal for this work. Without this opportunity, I probably never would have painted them’ (quoted in Elger 2002, p.194). Beginning with 288 photographs cut out and collected from encyclopaedias and dictionaries, Richter narrowed down his selection to forty-eight individuals.
The final selection omits politicians, artists, religious figures, representatives of business and commerce, and women. The decision to exclude visual artists derived from Richter’s desire to avoid the suggestion that he was commenting on his own artistic pedigree (see Elger 2002, p.194). Likewise politicians were omitted to discourage the attachment of ideological content to the work by critics. However, other images originally included in Richter’s selection, particularly those of the women, were discarded on the grounds of aesthetic and conceptual uniformity. Regarding the images chosen, Richter has stated: ‘I was attached to the idea of making them as natural as possible, while at the same time making the series as homogeneous as possible – the same size, tone, colour, etc.’ (Quoted in Elger and Obrist 2009, p.79.) All 288 photographs were collected in Richter’s scrapbook, published for the first time in 1972 under the title Atlas (sheets 30–7).
For the original portraits Richter used an episcope or visualizer, which projected the smaller original photographs onto larger canvases, before tracing the contours of the figures onto the canvas directly from the projection (Elger and Obrist 2009, p.62). Richter used a dry brush on a canvas with a wet surface, thereby reducing the visibility of brushstrokes and creating the impression of an out-of-focus photograph. Richter has called this soft-focus style ‘Vermalung’, which might be loosely translated ‘inpainting’ (Elger 2002, p.195). Richter’s term describes, as he puts it, the ‘feathering that disrupts the clarity and distinction of forms and figures’ (quoted in Elger 2002, p.195). The result of this stylistic decision is the diminishment of the individuality of the sitter in each portrait.
Though there has been a tendency to interpret 48 Portraits biographically, Richter’s deliberate homogenisation of the subject matter suggests the artist wanted to limit the significance of the particular individuals portrayed. Richter has said of this series: ‘I am interested in the speechless language of these pictures. Heads, even if they are full of literature and philosophy, become quite unliterary. Literature is invalidated; the personalities become anonymous. That's what is important to me here’ (quoted in Elger and Obrist 2009, p.63).
Further reading

Dietmar Elger, Gerhard Richter: A Life in Painting, trans. by Elizabeth M. Solaro, London 2002, pp.193–201.

Dietmar Elger and Hans Ulrich Obrist (eds.), Gerhard Richter: Text: Writings, Interviews and Letters, 1961–2007, London 2009, pp.62, 79, and 420–2.

Paul Moorhouse, Gerhard Richter Portraits: Painting Appearances, exhibition catalogue, National Portrait Gallery, London 2009, pp.88–90.

Catalogue essays

Postwar German Art at the Dallas Museum of Art

Contemporary Art at the Dallas Museum of Art

Artist/designers

Richter, Gerhard (German, born 1932)

Cultures

Geography

Process/materials

Historical periods

Individuals

Subject terms

RELATED OBJECTS

PROVENANCE

Until 1999: Gerhard Richter (b. 1932)

1999: Dallas Museum of Art, purchased through Anthony d'Offay Gallery, London

The main source for this provenance is the Acquisition Proposal in the Collections Records object file (1999.285.1-48).

AUDIO ASSETS

VIDEO ASSETS

IMAGE ASSETS

WEB RESOURCES

Uncube Magazine~See images of the so-called "Nazi" German Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, which inspired Richter's 48 Portraits.

ARCHIVAL RESOURCES

FUN FACTS

The DMA is the only public or private collection to house Richter's complete work in editions from 1965 to the present.

TEACHING IDEAS

RULES

Apply to objects where number equals 1999.285.27

General Description

Gerhard Richter’s 48 Portraits is a series of forty-eight black and white photographs of his own 1972 oil paintings of the same name, painted for the German Pavilion at the 1972 Venice Biennale. Inspired by the Neoclassical architecture of the pavilion and its association with Nazi Germany, Richter chose subjects from 288 photographs collected from encyclopedias and dictionaries, and eventually narrowed down to forty-eight men. The original oil paintings resemble soft-focus black and white photographs and feature busts of white, male philosophers, composers, writers, and scientists from the Western world, all born between 1824 and 1904. Subjects of the portraits include Albert Einstein (1999.285.25), Gustav Mahler (1999.285.15), Thomas Mann (1999.285.19), Franz Kafka (1999.285.24), and Oscar Wilde (1999.285.40). In tandem with a uniformity of dress and pose, Richter's 48 Portraits are unified and homogenized by the soft grisaille forms. Though adamant that the 48 Portraits hold no personal meaning, Richter does admit to working with the concept of national identity. In a 2002 interview with the curator Robert Storr, the artist identified the ‘father problem’–or rather the absence of the father figure–as typically German, saying, "That is the reason for such agitation; that is why this work has such a disquieting effect."

This edition of photographs further explores themes seen in other works by Richter, especially his interest in mechanically produced, supposedly inauthentic images and objects. He deliberately plays with the representation of photographic and printing techniques to make plain that these are prints of photographs of paintings of photographs. In other words, the "models" for Richter's works are not the things themselves, but previous representations of these things. Richter is making pictures of pictures.