Mao
Gerhard Richter
German, born 1932
1968
A large collotype print in which Gerhard Richter deliberately renders a familiar political portrait as a soft, out-of-focus image to question the authority of mass-reproduced imagery.
From a distance the face reads like an instantly recognizable official portrait, but up close it dissolves into velvety, blurred planes of light and shadow that make the eyes, nose, and mouth hover uncertainly.
By translating an icon of political power into a hazy photographic print, Richter challenged how reproduced images confer authority and helped open conversations about representation, media, and memory in postwar art.
Medium
Collotype
Dimensions
composition and sheet: 33 x 23 3/8" (83.9 x 59.4 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Jeanne C. Thayer Fund
Accession
19.1993
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
