The two paintings entitled Arrest [CR: 674/1-2] are a part of the cycle October 18, 1977 and refer to the detention of Andreas Baader and Holger Meins on the morning of 1st June 1972 in a courtyard in Frankfurt after a shootout. The RAF had shocked the country in the weeks before their arrest by carrying out numerous bombings and prompting one of the biggest enforcement actions in the history of the republic.
Richter draws on film stills the ARD took for the evening news at the seizure of the three men from an adjacent rooftop[1]. The same stills were published on 8th June 1972 by the magazine stern. Just like in the magazine the two paintings depict two sequential snapshots[2]: from above, the viewer can see inside a garage yard and several cars, one person and a bigger, dark vehicle can be recognized beside the white wall of the house. Richter transferred the black and white prototypes to the canvas and blurred the outlines so heavily that further details are hard to distinguish. Because of the wide distribution of the images in the press it must be assumed that contemporary viewers would nonetheless have been able to recognize the scene[3].
Depicted are a house and a garage yard in Frankfurt[4] where several cars are parked and an armoured car of the police is trying to close in Holger Meins and Andreas Baader that had barricaded themselves into one of the garages. After Baader was incapacitated by a shot to the thigh, Meins surrendered and was forced by the police to take off his clothes[5]. Arrest 1 [CR: 674-1] shows the bright front of the house as well as the armoured car and a line of parked cars in front of it. Holger Meins has stepped out of the garage but his figure is merely hinted at by a dark shadow. Arrest 2 [CR: 674-2] shows a scene a few moments later when the armoured car has pulled back and Holger Meins is just stepping out of his trousers. The blurring is still quite strong, however, overall it appears less agitated and calmer with some details identifiable. The outlines of the big house on the left by contrast are much hazier than in the first painting.
Chronologically speaking, Arrest 1 and 2 and the Youth Portrait [CR: 672-1] are the prelude to the cycle October 18, 1977. The seizure of Baader, Raspe and Meins on the one hand is the start to their imprisonment of the protagonists of the cycle[6] and their consequential suicides, on the other hand the two paintings also stand in place of the fight between the RAF and the state authorities. Although the terrorist actions of the RAF had been brought to a temporary end with the arrests, the discussions about the adequacy of the measures taken to catch them and the accusation that the protection of the state had become irrationally brutal had just begun[7].
Although Richter never intended to depict the terrorists as some sort of heroes, he nevertheless saw them as victims of their 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… […] What interests me is something different […] the why and wherefore of an ideology that has such an effect on people; why we have ideologies at all; whether this is an inevitable, a necessary part of our make-up – or a pointless one, a mere hindrance, a menace to life, a delusion.” [8]
[1] Robert Storr (ed.), Gerhard Richter. October 18, 1977, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2000, p. 149. Jan-Carl Raspe had been captured that same morning just before the depicted events unfurled. Cf. Aust 2008, pp. 344-345.
[2] Kai-Uwe Hemken, Gerhard Richter 18. Oktober 1977, insel, Frankfurt/Leipzig, 1998, p. 67.
[3] Martin Henatsch, Gerhard Richter – 18. Oktober 1977. Das verwischte Bild der Geschichte, Fischer, Frankfurt, 1998 pp. 80-81.
[4] Ortrud Westheider, “Eine Idee, die bis zum Tod geht. Der Zyklus 18. Oktober 1977”, in: Uwe M. Schneede (ed.), Gerhard Richter. Bilder einer Epoche, exh. cat. Bucerius Kunst-Forum, Munich, 2011, p. 158.
[5] Stefan Aust, Der Baader-Meinhof-Komplex, 3rd ed., Hamburg, 2008, pp. 344-349.
[6] Gudrun Ensslin was captured only a week later, on 7th June 1972, in a boutique in Hamburg, while Urike Meinhof was seized on 17th June 1972 in Hanover. Cf. Aust 2008, pp. 354-363.
[7] Hemken 1998, p. 74.
[8] Conversation with Jan Thorn-Prikker concerning the 18 October 1977 cycle, 1989 (translated by David Britt) in: Gerhard Richter. Text. Writings, Interviews and Letters 1961-2007. Thames & Hudson, 2009, p. 232.
Notes prepared by editorial team
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