The three paintings entitled Dead [CR: 667/1-3] show close-ups of the head and upper body of a woman who has been laid down, her eyes closed. Her dark hair is almost indistinguishable from the black background, but the skin of her face and her light-coloured clothing stand out from the gloom. Looking again, one can discern a dark line around her neck, from which one can infer death by hanging.

The person depicted is the German terrorist Ulrike Meinhof, a founding member of the Red Army Faction (RAF). She hanged herself on 9th May 1976, on the bars of her cell in Stuttgart-Stammheim prison.

The paintings belong to Gerhard Richter’s series October 18, 1977: the title refers to the day on which RAF members Gudrun Ensslin, Andreas Baader and Jan-Carl Raspe were found dead in their prison cells. All the paintings in this cycle are based on photographs; the photographic source for Dead was also published in the German magazine Stern on 16th June 1976.

In addition to the varying formats, the paintings differ from each other in their painterly realisation and the layout of the subject on the canvas. Furthermore, the position of the subject’s head appears to be slightly different in each version. Richter’s typical method of blurring intensifies from picture to picture: whereas in Dead [CR: 667-1] Meinhof’s features are recognisable, by the last painting, Dead [CR: 667-3], they are indistinct and the demarcations between light and dark tones are less harshly elaborated as the deep black background becomes a soft grey.

The three paintings seem to illustrate the artist’s search for an appropriate manner of representation as he gradually works towards creating a fitting depiction of the death of this woman. The distinctive close-ups differentiate the paintings Dead from the other pictures of dead RAF members and raise the question “why has this happened?” – something they cannot answer. More than any other paintings of the October 18, 1977 series, they express “sorrow for the people who died so young and so crazy, for nothing.” (Interview with Gregorio Magnani, 1989 in: Gerhard Richter: Text. Writings, Interviews and Letters 1961–2007, Thames & Hudson, London, 2009, p. 222)

Notes prepared by editorial team