"Imprecision, uncertainty, transience, incompleteness": Gerhard Richter’s "October 18, 1977" and Don DeLillo’s "Baader-Meinhof"

Tristan Ireson-Howells

Abstract


This article explores the relationship between Gerhard Richter’s October 18, 1977 and Don DeLillo’s short story “Baader-Meinhof”. Richter’s depiction of the deaths of members of the Red Army Faction draws from original photographic sources. Richter blurs these images thereby questioning aspects of obfuscation and the paradoxical clarity of incompleteness. DeLillo’s story is centred on a discussion about the paintings which quickly transforms into a narrative of coercion and stalking. This paper considers how visual art can be represented in fiction finding parallels between Richter’s and DeLillo’s use of repetition, haziness and uncertainty to problematise the act of viewing.


Keywords


Richter; DeLillo; Baader; Meinhof; terror; ekphrasis

Full Text:

PDF

References


Barthes, R. (1981). Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography. New York: Hill and Wang.

Bernstein, J. M. (Ed.). (2001). The Culture Industry: Selected Essays on Mass Culture. Theodor W. Adorno. London: Routledge.

Crawford, K. (2009). Gender and terror in Gerhard Richter's “October 18, 1977” and Don DeLillo's “Baader-Meinhof”. New German Critique, 107, 207-230.

Danchev, A. (2010). The artist and the terrorist, or the paintable and the unpaintable: Gerhard Richter and the “Baader-Meinhof” group. Alternatives 35, 93-112.

DeLillo, D. (2001). The Body Artist. New York: Scribner.

DeLillo, D. (2011). Baader-Meinhof. In D. DeLillo, The Angel Esmerelda (pp. 105-118). New York: Scribner

Godfrey, M. (2011). Blurring boundaries: Gerhard's Richter's work is often divided into photo-based painting and abstraction. This division is contested in a much-anticipated restrospective opening this month at London's Tate Modern. Apollo, 174(591).

Herren, G. (2015). Don Delillo’s art stalkers. MFS Modern Fiction Studies, 61(1), 138-167.

Jahn, F. (Ed.) (1989). Gerhard Richter: Atlas. München: Verlag Fred Jahn.

Kauffman, L. (2008). The wake of terror: Don DeLillo's "In the ruins of the future", “Baader-Meinhof”, and “Falling man”. MFS Modern Fiction Studies, 54(2), 353-377.

Richter, G. (2009). Text, Writings, Interview and Letters 1961-2007. London: Thames & Hudson.

Richter, G. (2011). Panorama: A Retrospective. London: Tate Publishing.

Van Schepen, R. (2017). Gerhard Richter's critical artistic strategies: Politics, terrorism and war. Messages, Sages and Ages, 4(1), 7-23.




DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17951/lsmll.2020.44.2.41-50
Date of publication: 2020-07-14 13:48:30
Date of submission: 2020-02-19 18:48:22


Statistics


Total abstract view - 1586
Downloads (from 2020-06-17) - PDF - 806

Indicators



Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Copyright (c) 2020 Tristan Ireson-Howells

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.