Gerhard Richter - Stammheim - 1995

This limited edition reproduces in facsimile each of the twenty-three Richter works executed on pages of the book Stammheim. Der Prozess gegen die Rote Armee Fraktion by Pieter H. Bakker Schut – the story of the alleged simultaneous suicides in 1977 of three German members of the Red Army Faction in Stammheim prison. The images here are abstract, yet closely historically and thematically linked to the artist's 18. Oktober 1977 series. They affirm Richter's continued search for a means to communicate historical themes beyond the physicality of the paint surface, his refusal to completely dispense with metaphor, his belief that art can express profound mourning while remaining, according to Richter, "the highest form of hope".