The portrait-format painting Cell is part of the series October 18, 1977, in which Gerhard Richter approaches the German terrorist group Red Army Faction (RAF) in an artistic manner. It shows the deserted prison cell of one of the leaders of the RAF, Andreas Baader, who was arrested in June 1972 in Frankfurt am Main and found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in his cell at Stuttgart-Stammheim prison on 18th October 1977.

The picture has a distinct vertical division in the centre: floor-to-ceiling bookshelves cover the right side, lined with books. A light-coloured wall dominates the left side of the image. A dark coat hangs over the door leading to the bathroom of the cell. In contrast to the other paintings from the series, this work is defined by conspicuous vertical blurring.

All the paintings within the series October 18, 1977 are based on photographic source images, in this case a police photograph taken following the discovery of Baader’s suicide and published in the German magazine Stern in 1980. Additional details are apparent in the source photograph: a triangular red flag hanging next to the book shelves, and numerous objects, amongst them books and a typewriter, placed on the floor in front of the shelves.
Two edited copies of the photograph can be found in Gerhard Richter's Atlas [Sheet: 470], in which he collected many of his source images. Both copies are blurred, which makes clear that the details mentioned above were of lesser importance to the artist's idea for the painting.

In contrast to the paintings Man Shot Down 1 and 2 [CR: 669/1-2], which depict the dead Andreas Baader, Cell refers to his everyday life in prison. Although his personal effects cannot be identified clearly, the numerous books in particular reflect Baader's intellectual background and the RAF's attempts to underpin its politically-motivated actions with the help of ideological materials.

Gerhard Richter repeatedly pointed out the danger which lies in placing one’s trust in ideologies. In reference to the October 18, 1977 pictures, Richter speaks of digression in an ideological sense: "a leave-taking from a specific doctrine of salvation and, beyond that, from the illusion that unacceptable circumstances of life can be changed by this conventional expedient of violent struggle (this kind of revolutionary thought and action is futile and passé)." (Notes, 1989 in: Gerhard Richter: Text. Writings, Interviews and Letters 1961–2007, Thames & Hudson, London, 2009, p. 213) Thus, the painting Cell can be understood as a manifestation of a failure which resulted from a misguided ideology.

Notes prepared by editorial team