2002.30 Thomas Struth, The Richter Family 1, Cologne

To make his family portraits, Thomas Struth lets the sitters arrange themselves in their home. Standing beside the camera, Struth issues one instruction: look at the lens. He then waits for the instant in which every family member is vibrantly present. This portrait is of the renowned German artist, Gerhard Richter, and his family. Struth was once a student of Richter at the Düsseldorf Academy of Fine Arts, and it was Richter who encouraged Struth's pursuit of photography. Struth presents his former teacher and his family in a seemingly simple way that radiates its penetration the further one gazes at these mysterious, serious, yet ultimately, very human faces. Richter's gaze has all the intensity one would expect from this major figure as he stares down the viewer in a way that becomes nearly unsettling. On his knee sits Richter's son, while on the right side of the composition are pictured Richter's wife and daughter, all of whom similarly fixate their eyes on the camera lens. In capturing the psychology of one of our era's most important artists and his family, Struth creates a work that illuminates and defers understanding of Richter by providing information with which our own powers of analysis must contend. 

Until 2002: Thomas Struth (b. 1954)

2002: Dallas Museum of Art purchased through Marian Goodman Gallery, New York [1]

Notes:

The main source for this provenance is the copy of the invoice from Marian Goodman Gallery to Dallas Museum of Art dated April 8, 2002, in the Collections Records object file (2002.30). 

Apply to objects where number equals 2002.30