GERHARD RICHTER'S BIRKENAU PAINTINGS

In this books extensive essay entitled, Amnesia and Anamnesis, eminent art historian B.H.D. Buchloh explores both the historical an d the modern art contexts which inform Richters Birkenau series of paintings.In this work, G. Richter refers to photographs taken b y the Jewish Sonderkommando at Birkenau Concentration Camp in 1944. These photographic documents provide the basis for the first l ayer of his painting, which is followed by further, reworking painting processes.