Gerhard Richter's JFK trilogy to be shown together for first time
The three paintings - one of Jacqueline Kennedy being consoled by President Johnson, another of her clutching an umbrella and looking shocked, and a third of assassin Lee Harvey Oswald - have never been shown together before.
The first, to which Richter gave an explanatory title, has never been exhibited in public at all.
Curator Paul Moorhouse thought it was a private "working proof" that Richter - widely regarded alongside Lucian Freud as one of the world's greatest living painters - created while forming his ideas for the other two.
He did intend these two for public view, according to Mr Moorhouse.
But these he gave no title, and no clue as to the two figures depicted, leaving it to the viewer to guess who they were.
Mr Moorhouse said of the painting of Mrs Kennedy holding an umbrella: "Who is she? She could be someone standing at a bus stop."
The curator explained why the "elusive" Richter wanted to keep people guessing: "What he is really doing in all his work is trying to describe the world, but concluding, 'You can't. You are only confronted with the appearance of things, and you can't get beyond that.' "
All three were based on newspaper photographs following President Kennedy's assassination in 1963...
Read entire article at Telegraph (UK)
The first, to which Richter gave an explanatory title, has never been exhibited in public at all.
Curator Paul Moorhouse thought it was a private "working proof" that Richter - widely regarded alongside Lucian Freud as one of the world's greatest living painters - created while forming his ideas for the other two.
He did intend these two for public view, according to Mr Moorhouse.
But these he gave no title, and no clue as to the two figures depicted, leaving it to the viewer to guess who they were.
Mr Moorhouse said of the painting of Mrs Kennedy holding an umbrella: "Who is she? She could be someone standing at a bus stop."
The curator explained why the "elusive" Richter wanted to keep people guessing: "What he is really doing in all his work is trying to describe the world, but concluding, 'You can't. You are only confronted with the appearance of things, and you can't get beyond that.' "
All three were based on newspaper photographs following President Kennedy's assassination in 1963...