The two paintings entitled Arrest [CR: 674/1-2] belong to the series October 18, 1977 and depict the arrest of the leading members of the German terrorist group Red Army Faction (RAF). During the weeks preceding their arrests, the RAF shocked Germany with numerous bomb attacks and triggered one of the biggest prosecution cases in West Germany. On the morning of 1st June 1972, Andreas Baader, Holger Meins and Jan-Carl Raspe were seized outside a block of garages after an exchange of fire.

With these paintings Gerhard Richter refers to documentary photographs that had been published in the German magazine Stern on 8th June 1972. Richter transferred the black-and-white source images onto canvas and subsequently blurred them. As with the photographs, the paintings show two sequential snapshots. From a high vantage point, the viewer looks down on the area outside what appears to be a block of flats; next to this white building one can see some parked cars, a figure and a dark vehicle. The degree to which the artist has blurred the image makes reading specific details virtually impossible.

The circumstances of the arrest and the related photographs received a considerable amount of public attention, so it is likely that contemporaries were able to link the paintings to the original photographs. They knew, presumably, that the vehicle was in fact a military vehicle and the person was Holger Meins, who was forced to undress in the yard. Andreas Baader, who was lying wounded by a bullet cannot be made out in Richter’s paintings.

The first painting, Arrest 1, shows the moment when Holger Meins stepped out of a garage underneath the residential block. His body is indicated by just a blurred dark line. The light-coloured residential building on the left offers a contrast to the darker foreground cut across by a cropped roof on the lower right hand side. The military vehicle is situated in the centre of the image. The centre of Arrest 2 [CR: 674-2] is almost empty since the military vehicle has retreated to the entrance of the yard. Opposite the vehicle stands Holger Meins; slightly bent over, his naked upper body can just be discerned. The blurring differs from Arrest 1 insofar as it seems to be less evenly rendered. The reduced contrast afforded by softer grey tones generates an overall homogeneity within the painting.

In the chronology of the events in Richter’s cycle, the Arrest paintings are positioned almost at the beginning. They visualise the conflict between the RAF and the State and the success of the latter. Due to the arrests the terrorist activities of the first generation of the RAF were brought to an end. Gerhard Richter emphasizes the moment of the RAF’s failure and understands the terrorists as victims of their own ideology: “Not the victims of any specific ideology of the left or of the right, but of the ideological posture as such. This has to do with the everlasting human dilemma in general: to work for a revolution and fail…” (Conversation with Jan Thorn-Prikker concerning the 18 October 1977 cycle, 1989 in: Gerhard Richter: Text. Writings, Interviews and Letters 1961–2007, Thames & Hudson, London, 2009, p. 232) The cycle October 18, 1977 focuses almost exclusively on the arrests of the RAF members and the subsequent events – therefore on their failure, implying that Richter had no interest in depicting them as heroes or advocating their actions.

Notes prepared by editorial team