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Thispaper considers the relationship between two objects: aphotographandapainting.Iwillexaminethisrelationshipinlightofthestill lifetradition,linkingGerhardRichter’spaint‐ingTote tohiscommonobjectpaintings,whichhedevelopedinthe1960s,andtohisvanitasofthe1980s.Myreadingofthestilllifeasaself‐consciouslyconstructedimagethatdetailsthequotidianwill illuminate how the relationship between thephotographandthepaintingexhibitsaflatness,ananti‐heroicmatter‐of‐factnessthatpointsnotonlytogriefandthefailureof ideology, but also to the commonness of catastrophe, therealityandemptinessofdeath.

First the painting. In 1988 Gerhard Richter created apaintingofUrlikeMeinhof,amemberoftheGermanterroristgrouptheBaader‐Meinhofgang,deadonanexaminingtable,aburn in herneck from hanging.He painted the image threetimesindecreasingsize:24½”x28¾”,24½”x24½”,and13¾”x15½”. Forthe purposes of thispaper Iwill focus on thefirstTotethatRichterpaintedinthecycle.Usingabrushygrisaille,Richter blends the edges of the body with the dark back‐ground.Herhead istiltedup, themarkwrappingaroundherneck afuzzyline.Theimagelooksclinical andmatter‐of‐fact;thisfigureisdead,orsleeping,orplayingdead. Tote(Dead)isapaintinginaseriesofworksthatRich‐terworkedon in 1988 forhis 18.Oktober1977cycleofpaint‐ings.Hecollectedphotographsprimarilyfromnewsmagazinesof theBaader‐Meinhofgangandpaintedthemembersoftheterroristgroupinjailgauntfromhungerstrikes,aswellastheinteriorofthe cells, items foundinthe cell suchas arecord

Note: Montage articles, and the images con-tained therein, are for educational use only.

MONTAGEStillLife:DetailingtheGermanAutumnthroughGerhardRichter’sTote(Dead)

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player, and, finally, Richter painted their inert bodies, deadfrom self‐inflictedwounds. The story of theBaader‐Meinhofgang,apartoftheWestGermanterroristorganizationtheRedArmy Faction, is too involved to relate in detail here. Yet itshouldbenotedthat,notunliketheWeatherUndergroundinthe United States in the 1960s, this militant terrorist groupgrewoutoftheGermanstudentmovement,opposedtheViet‐nam War and hoped to create a revolution in what theydeemed a fascist West German State. They planted bombs,robbedbanks,went into hiding, escapedfrom jail, andkilledpeople. Subsequently, the group spent manyyears in ahighsecurity prison. On October 17, 1977, three of the memberskilledthemselvesintheirjailcells.Thegroupsuicidewaspre‐cededbytwo failedterroristactsthatwereintendedtosecurethereleaseofthemembers—thekidnappingandexecutionofthe industrialistHanns‐Martin Schleyerandthe thwartedhi‐jacking of a Lufthansa Boeing 737. Several of the membersstagedandcarriedouttheirsuicideinawaythatimpliedtheywerevictims.Baader, forinstance,placedthegunat thebackof his headinorder tomakeit appear as ifhewereassassi‐nated.Suchactsraisedquestionsinthepressastothetruena‐tureoftheirdeathsandmanybelievedthatprisonofficialshad

Fig. 1: Gerhard Richter, Tote (Dead), 1988, oil on canvas, 24 ½" x 28 ¾" (Photo courtesy the Museum of Modern Art, New York)

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executedthem.ThisperiodofterrorandinstabilityinGermanhistoryisoftenreferredtoasthe“GermanAutumn.”1 Urlike Meinhof, namesake to half of the Baader‐Meinhof gang, was a somewhat different character from theothermembers.Raisedbyaliberalsinglemother,MeinhofwasaprominentfigureintheNewWestGermanLeft.Shewroteabitingpolitical columnforseveralyearsforthestudentmaga‐zine Konkret and had the reputation of being a fiercepolitically‐minded intellectual. She was a mother. UrlikeMeinhofhangedherselfonMay5,1976,oneyearpriorto theothergroupmembers’suicides. Withthepressphotosspreadout beforehim,GerhardRichterhadtomakeachoice.“Theonesthatweren’tpaintableweretheonesIdidpaint,”hehassaid.2Butthen,howtopaintthem?Inworkingoutthisproblem,Richterreturnedtoastylehedevelopedintheearly1960s,astylethatgrewoutofhisex‐perimentationwithcreatingpaintingsthatlookedlikeblurredphotographs.WhileRichter developed this style in the earlyperiodofhiscareer,heabandoneditsoonafterforexperimen‐tationsinlandscapeandabstractpainting,anddidnotreturntousingthebrushygrisaillelookofhisearly1960sworksuntilhisOctobercycle.Richterfeltthatpaintingphotographsfreedhim from an ascribed style or inherent content. His choiceswere limited.Using aphotograph as sourcematerial allowedforaseeminglydeskilledapproach.“Ihatethedazzlement ofskill,” he stated in 1964. And one year later he reiterated,“When I paint from a photograph, conscious thinking iseliminated.”3

Inthesepaintingsofphotographsfromtheearly1960s,Richterconcentratedoneverydayobjectssuchasachairmadealmostghostlyinitsshadowsandblendededges.Whenaskedbyan interviewer about this image, Richterstated: “It is ourchair,whichweuse. It isreallypitiableandverybanal,but ithasamood.”4 In1965, Richtercreateda small cycleof paint‐ingsoftoiletpaperrolls,eachfromaslightlydifferentangle.Itwas in this period that he first experimented with paintingpressphotographsaswellaspersonalphotographs,producingsomeofhismostwellknownworkssuchasWomanwithUm‐brellafrom 1964andUncleRudifrom1965. Inoneofhisearli‐estpressphotographpaintings,Richterpaintedanimagefrom

1. An extensive history of the RAF can be found in Stefan Aust’s Der Baader Meinhof Komplex (Hamburg: Hoffmann und Campe, 1988). Baader-Meinhof.com also provides timelines and a detailed account of Ger-many’s Autumn.

2. Gerhard Richter, “Conversation with Jan Thorn Prikker concerning the cycle 18 Oc-tober 1977, 1989,” The Daily Practice of Paint-ing: Writings 1962–1993, ed. Hans-Ulrich Obrist, trans. David Britt (Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 1995), 186.

3. Richter, “Notes, 1964–1965,” in The Daily Practice of Painting: Writings 1962–1993, 35, 38.

4. Robert Storr, “Gerhard Richter: Forty Years of Painting,” Gerhard Richter: Doubt and Belief in Painting (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2003), 53.

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anewspaperofamancrushedbyalargechunkofice,addingthicklettersatthetopthatspelloutTote. The paintings from the early 1960s are not still lifeproper(Richterwouldexplorethisgenremoredirectlylater),buttheycouldbeunderstoodasatypeofstilllife,anapproachtotheeverydaythatRichtercalled“capitalistrealism”andthatIrefertoasthe“commonobjectpainting.”I’mtakingthistermfrom a 1962Artforum articlewhere John Coplans traced thechronology of “the common object and art” starting withEugene Atget’s photographs of the banal urban image andendingwith theEnglishpoppainters of thelate1950s.5 Thatsame yearWalterHopps curated an exhibition of early popartistsatthePasadenaMuseumofArtentitled“NewPaintingof Common Objects.” Artists in the exhibition such as EdRuscha,AndyWarhol, andWayneTheibaudwereall experi‐mentingwithcreatingimagesofordinaryobjectsthroughpho‐tographicmeans.

By naming Richter’s early experimentation with pho‐tography “common object paintings” Ihopetomake amoredirect link betweentheseworksandthetraditionof the stilllife.Thecommonobjectpaintingisavariationofthestill lifeasittoodepictsthemundanethingsthatinhabiteverydaylife.FormerdrawingcuratoroftheMuseumofModernArt,MargitRowelldescribesthestill lifeasa“contrivedassemblage.”Sheexplains that suchworksrefract andmagnify thequotidian.6Thecommonobjectpaintingandthestill lifeshareaninterestin theself‐consciouslyconstructedtableau.Inplaceofabowlof fruit,flowers,orapitcher,areotheroverlookedobjects—atoiletpaperroll,achandelier,animagetakenfromanewspa‐per.

Indiscussing theworkofCezanne,MeyerShapirosug‐geststhat thestilllifeisadeadpainting,emptyofspirit.Con‐siderhisassessment:

It might be supposed that in still‐life paintingthemeaningoftheworkismerelythesumofthedenotationsoftheseparateparts,whileinpaint‐ings ofaction (history,myth, religion) to namethe figure is still not to reach the sense of thewhole;andthatthisarbitrarinessintheassembly

5. John Coplans, “The New Paintings of Common Objects,” Artforum (November 1962): 26–29.

6. Margrit Rowel, Objects of Desire: The Mod-ern Still Life (New York: The Museum of Mod-ern Art, 1997), 23.

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ofstill lifeobjectsaccountsinapainting fortheshallownessofspiritualcontent.7

Norman Bryson likewise defines the still life as a mode thatstandsinoppositiontonarrativeandhistoricalpainting:“Thelawof narrative isoneofchange: charactersmove from epi‐sode to episode, from ignorance to knowledge . . . still lifepitchesitselfatalevelofmaterialexistencewherenothingex‐ceptionaloccurs:thereiswholesaleevictionoftheEvent.”8 Richter’s title,Tote, does not nameUrlikeMeinhofasthefigureinthepainting;theeventisanonymous.OutsideofthecontextoftheotherworksintheOctobercycle,shecouldbealmost anyone.Afterall, thepaintings,whichareapartofGermanhistory,residepermanentlyintheMuseumofModernArt inNewYork City. Robert Storr, the curator at the timewho worked to acquire the cycle, reads the series as historypaintings, works that tell the grandnarrativeof theterroristeventsofthe 1970sinGermany.9 But tobelievethatRichter’spainting ofUrlikeMeinhof iswrappedupin storytelling is toseethe image asan act ofmorality, of truth telling. Instead,Richtercreatedadeadimage,an image,likethestill life,thatisemptiedofspiritualcontent,devoidofthemyth.Itisasin‐ertandmotionlessasaroundshinyappleinabowl.AsRichterhasinsisted, “thesepictures possiblygiveriseto questions ofpolitical content or historical truth. Neither interests me inthisinstance.”10Healso stated,“Thepoliticaltopicalityofmy

7. Meyer Shapiro, “Still Life and Cezanne,” Modern Art: 19th and 20th Centuries (New York: G. Braziller, 1978), 24.

8. Norman Bryson, “Xenia.” Looking at the Overlooked: Four Essays on Still Life Painting (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1990), 61.

9. Storr, “Painting History—Painting Tragedy,” Gerhard Richter: Doubt and Belief in Painting, 250–63.

10. Richter, “Notes for a press conference, November-December 1988,” in The Daily Practice of Painting: Writings 1962–1993,174.

Fig. 2: Stern, June 16, 1976.

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Octoberpaintingsmeansalmostnothingtome.”11Andfinally,Richter’smaxim,“Ibelieveinnothing.”12ForRichter’scommonobjectpaintings,it isnotthe toiletpaperroll orthechair,oreven thedeadbody—rather, theobject inthepainting isthemost commoncurrencyof imagemaking: thephotographit‐self.

And so now, the photograph.WhatmakesRichter’s imageadead imageis its relationship to photography. In thecase ofTote,RichterisnotpaintingMeinhof’sfigureasitappearedinthephotograph,heispaintingthephotographas itappearedinthenewsmagazine.IfRichter’simageis,indeed,astill life,it isastilllifeofthephotographicfunction.Andit isadeadlyfunction.InhisstudiesonphotographyRolandBarthesassertsthatthe“Deathistheeidosofthephotograph.”13Intheclickoftheshutter,temporalrealityisforeverarrested.Thecameraisaclock for“seeing.” Thesoundoftheclick stopstime, trans‐formingtherelationbetweenthesubjectandtheobject:“Iamneithersubjectnorobjectbutasubjectwhofeelsheisbecom‐ing anobject,”Barthesexplained. “Ithenexperienceamicro‐version of death (of parenthesis): I am truly becoming aspecter.”14 Within the time stop of the click, the subjectchanges; through thefilter of thelens it is transposed into acommonobject.

“Photographs furnish evidence,” Susan Sontag hassaid.15 Published in a newsmagazine, the image ofMeinhofseeminglydenotes a truth, the bare factsofa dead body. “Aphotographistakeninordertoinform,”Richterhassaid.16TheBaader‐Meinhofgangwerewidelyphotographedandfeaturedin newspapers andmagazines across Germany. Images fromthepopularmagazineDerSpiegelshowblackandwhitepolicephotographsoftheterrorists,asurveillancephotoofGundrunEnnslin being transferred to different locations, and a snap‐shotofAndreasBaaderinhis jail cell.17 Thereisastraightfor‐ward,matter‐of‐factqualitytothephotographs.

One article is framed by two significant photographs;thefirst shows ayoung,prettyUrlikeMeinhofasan intellec‐tual, standing infront ofabookcase, cigaretteinhand. “Col‐umnist UrlikeMeinhof,” thecaptionreads,“livedafalse life.”ThephotographbelowthearticledepictsachangedMeinhof,a struggling Meinhof, hair shorn and in prison garb, as two

11. Richter, “Notes for a press conference, November-December 1988,” 175.

12. Ibid., 35.

13. Roland Barthes, Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography, trans. Richard Howard (New York: Hill and Wang, 1981), 15.

14. Ibid., 14.

15. Susan Sontag, “In Plato’s Cave,” On Photog-raphy (New York: Picador, 1973), 5.

16. Richter, “Notes, 1964–1965,” 31.

17. See Der Spiegel, July 5, 1976; February 2, 1972; June 1972.

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prison officials pull at her. “Terrorist Meinhof,” the captionreads,“herskinstretched.”18ThesespectacularimagesstandaswarningstotheGermanpublic,awarningofthepowerofide‐ology to transform asocializedperson into ananarchist sav‐age.Thephotosact aspropaganda, spurning theexploitativedesire to understand where an ordinary person goes wrong,howadecentlifeleadstosuicide.

Sontagalsosaid,“Allphotographsaremementomori.”19ThepaintingthatstartsRichter’sOctobercycleisanimageofayoungMeinhof.It is theonlypainting inthecyclethatde‐pictsoneoftheterroristspriortohisorherRAFactivity.Thework entitled YouthPortrait is an image that was also pub‐lishedinDerSpiegel.20Thepainting isanonymous; thiscouldbeanyyoungwoman. Yetthephotograph isspecific;namingexists in captioning. UrlikeMeinhof looks innocently at thecamera,ayoungbourgeoise.

Ifaphotographofalivingpersonrendersatypeofob‐jectiveturningto death,whatofthephotographofthedead?A photograph of Meinhof dead on an examining table waspublishedinStern in aJune16, 1976 editorial examininghersuicide. The up‐close police photograph is slightly differentthanRichter’spainting.Inthephotographherheadhangsoffthe table; the cut of the bed sheet is clear around herneck.The headline states “That Everyone Screams for a Solution.”Thephotograph,placed in thiseditorial context,makesclearthatRichter’srenderingisnotjustapaintingofacommonob‐ject, a photograph, but of a particular photograph, one thatwaspublished in awidely distributednewsmagazine. It isaphotographthatholdscollectivecatharsis,aculturalcurrency:WherewereyouwhenUrlikeMeinhofhangedherself?

GerhardRichterwasgrieving.Orat least hewas sometenyearslater,in1988,whenhecompletedthecycle:“Deadlyreality, inhuman reality. Our rebellion. Impotence. Failure.Death.ThatiswhyIpaintedthesepictures.”21Itwasinthispe‐riod that Richter also began experimenting withmore tradi‐tionalformsofthestill life.In1983,priortostartingtheOcto‐bercycle,Richterbeganpaintingstilllifesinthevanitastradi‐tion,astylesimilartothemementomori.Thevanitasformofthe still life was primarily developed in seventeenth‐centuryNorthernEuropeandfeaturesobjectssuchasbooks,mirrors,skullsandcandlesthattraditionallysymbolicallyrepresentthe

18. These images come from an untitled article on Meinhof in Der Spiegel (May 17, 1976): 23.

19. Sontag, 15.

20. See Der Spiegel (November 1977): 52.

21. Richter, “Notes for a press conference, November–December 1988,” 175.

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fleeting natureof time, earthly life, the transience of beautyandyouth.InLatin,“vanitas” translatesinto“emptiness.”ThetermfrequentlyappearsinEcclesiastes intheBible.Theverse“Vanitasvanitatumomniavanitas” in theLatin versionoftheBibleistranslatedin theKingJamesBibleas “Vanityofvani‐ties;allisvanity.” TheNewInternationalVersionoftheBibletranslates this same passage as “Utterly meaningless! Every‐thing is meaningless.” This translation recalls Richter’s ownassessment ofbad pictures: “Pictures whichare interpretableandwhichcontainameaning,arebadpictures.Apicturepre‐sents itself as the unmanageable, the illogical, themeaningless.”22 Like thetraditional vanitas,Richterexperimentedwiththesamearrangementofobjects.Usingphotographsassourcematerial,herealisticallydepictedaseriesofskullsandburningcandles. Scholars have claimed that Richter’s interest in thestilllifeintheperiodofhisdevelopmentoftheOctobercycle,such asa series ofphotographs of apples from 1988 that arepublishedinRichter’sAtlas, actedasarespitefrom thediffi‐cultseries,oraseasymeditationsthatallowedhimtobreatheduringthedifficultprocessofrendering theOctoberworks.Iwouldarguethat suchimages,thephotographsofapplesandthe slightly earlier vanitaspaintings, acted asstudies or asastrategy for Richter in learning how to detail Germany’sautumn.Thetropeofthestill life, atropeseeminglyemptiedof content,allowedRichtertheabilityto address theevent,awayinwhichtodealwithhisgrief.

InRichardShiff’sstudyontheOctobercycle,heclaimsthatRichter’spaintingsmayjustaswellbetitled“Grief.”ShiffquotesRichtermaking adistinction between thephotographandthepainting:"I'dsaythephotographprovokeshorror,and[my]paintingwiththesamemotifsomethingmorelikegrief."Shiffsuggeststhatthepaintings“touchtheentirehumancon‐dition,notjust theparticularfactsofthesituation.”Shiffcon‐tinues,“Whenaskedtowardwhathisgriefisdirected,Richterreplies: ‘that it is the way it is.’ He is grieving at humannature.”23 Thatis,it isacommonemotion,grief,anditcanbeattached to any number of catastrophic events, both publicandpersonal. Thephotographsofapples, hisearliervanitas,andthecommon object paintings from the 1960s allowed Richter a

22. Richter, “Notes, 1964–1965,” 35.

23. Richard Shiff, “Eine Amerikanisierung deutscher Kunst,” trans. Jürgen Blasius, in Cornelia Homburg, ed., German Art: Deutsche Kunst aus amerikanischer Sicht (Cologne: DuMont, 2004), 24

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waytopainttheunpaintable.TheaffectlessandbanalformofthestilllifeprovidedastrategyindetailingthedisillusionmentofourGermanAutumn.Thefailureofideologyisafailureweall share.Shiffstates, “peopleofallkindsbecomeirrationallydestructivebecauseofadherence tobelief, ideology.”24UrlikeMeinhof,reflectedthroughtherelationshipbetweenthepressphotographandRichter’spainting,comes to represent simul‐taneouslythepowerandtheillusionofideology,themeaning‐lessrealityofalifeended insuicide.Dead, ontheexaminingtable,shebecomesantiheroic,common,anotherstilledlife.▚

24. Shiff, 24.

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