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Mouth (Mund)

A work made of oil on canvas.
© Gerhard Richter

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  • A work made of oil on canvas.

Date:

1963

Artist:

Gerhard Richter
German, born 1932

About this artwork

Gerhard Richter is one of the foremost European painters of the postwar period. Beginning in the early 1960s, he enlarged and transferred onto canvas found images such as personal snapshots or photographs drawn from newspapers or magazines, which he then blurred by dragging a dry brush over the wet pigment. As Richter explained, “I blur things to make everything equally important and equally unimportant … I blur things to make all the parts a closer fit. Perhaps I also blur out the excess of unimportant information.” Mouth (Mund), one of the artist’s earliest surviving canvases, is derived from a photograph of the French actress Brigitte Bardot.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Contemporary Art

Artist

Gerhard Richter

Title

Mouth (Mund)

Place

Germany (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

1963

Medium

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

67 × 74 cm (26 1/2 × 29 1/4 in.)

Credit Line

Through prior gift of Mrs. Henry C. Woods; gift of Lannan Foundation

Reference Number

1997.173

Copyright

© Gerhard Richter

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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