Gerhard Richter: The Life of Images

The painting Folding Dryer depicts a clipping of a newspaper advertisement for a drying rack. Gerhard Richter reproduced the advertising photograph, a part of the descriptive text as well as the light-coloured background of the newspaper page. The square photograph shows a dark-haired woman demonstrating the handling of the drying rack by hanging a cloth on the line. Below the photograph, slightly shifted to the left, a black border frames the caption Faltbarer Trockner and some practical information about the measurements and the price of 8,70 DM, which is cropped in the painting. In places the painting appears to be rendered sketchily. The face of the woman resembles a mask; her blouse and skirt on the right side are smudged into the background.

The source image of this painting is included on sheet 10 of Gerhard Richter's Atlas. The format of the newspaper clipping is almost consistent with the detail depicted in the painting. The text of the advertisement however, shows discrepancies between painting and source image: Richter modified the text “5,60 m Trockenlänge bei geringem Platzverbrauch” [5.60 m drying length, less space required] to “5,60 m Trockenlängen!” adding an incorrect plural as well as an exclamation mark. When transferring the advertisement onto canvas, Richter divided the image into squares, which can still be seen in the source image in Atlas.

Gerhard Richter describes why he was interested in the motif as follows: “I didn't find the clothes-dryer ironic; there was something tragic about it, because it represented life in low-cost housing with nowhere to hang the washing. It was my own clothes-dryer, which I rediscovered in a newspaper – objectivized, as it were.”¹

Gerhard Richter's preoccupation with everyday objects and advertisements was influenced by the ideas of Pop Art, but goes beyond. As the quote shows, socio-critical aspects also had an effect on Richter's choice of motif. One year before he created this painting, Richter moved from the GDR to West Germany. The examination of the capitalist West as well as Richter's own search for his place in society are mirrored in such paintings as Folding Dryer.
 

¹ Interview with Sabine Schütz, 1990 in: Gerhard Richter: Text. Writings, Interviews and Letters 1961–2007, Thames & Hudson, London, 2009, p. 253.

Notes prepared by editorial team