18. Oktober 1977  FULL CIRCLE   (2001 - 2002)

This series is inspired by Gerhard Richter’s series "18. Oktober 1977", images based upon photographs disseminated by the press regarding the Baader-Meinhof terrorist group. 

As Richter based his paintings on photographs from newspapers, magazine clippings, etc., I went FULL CIRCLE. As Richter appropriated photography for his paintings, I appropriated his paintings for my work. 

That puts the paintings a step below in the process of my work and by the same token I go full circle to their origins. I am not attempting to compete with Richter’s paintings; the medium of painting has very different expressive strengths and these paintings by Richter in particular have a special, elevated importance as Richter “broke lances” with them – and was punished for it -- and made it easier for future artists to deal with this topic. However, bringing the images full circle, back to photography, results in a reevaluation of Richter’s paintings, the issues they raised, and the medium of photography.  My photographs don’t attempt to bring more to Richter’s work, but rather to explore the origins of his work, to deconstruct these origins back to their simplest terms, and to re-depict the source of his inspiration. 

The art world saw the process of painters being inspired by photographs as some kind of validation of photography as art. I attempt to go one step further and use the paintings to inspire my work.   

The figures one sees in some of the photographs are paper cutouts of me (see Arrest 1 (Festnahme 1) B or  Funeral (Beerdigung) B).  I could have achieved my purpose in a smoother, more verisimilar way with Photoshop, but I intentionally used a cruder method of paper cutouts to bring a freshness to the fakeness of the images in this digital, easily-manipulated world, where people now distrust what they see.

I think it is important constantly to look upon the past with fresh eyes and to use the past to re-evaluate what is happening politically in the world at any given time.  For example "Youth Portrait (Jugendbildnis)", the painting based on the photograph of Ulrike Meinhof portrait, I attempt to raise questions and open dialogues – who is she, why is she being portrayed by the male artist (me), who were the Baader-Meinhof group,... 

Spiros Margaris