Gerhard Richter
Hotel Diana

As a document of friendship – Sigmar Polke and Gerhard Richter have known each other since they began studying at the Düsseldorf Art Academy in 1962 – the portfolio Grafik des Kapitalistischen Realismus (EB25) includes Gerhard Richter’s screen print Hotel Diana, which was created from a photo taken by Richter using a self-timer and, according to the subtitle printed on it, shows the artists on “Saturday, October 14, 1967, between 11 a.m. and 12 p.m. (Antwerp, Hotel Diana, Polke on the right, Richter on the left).” The image seems to provide proof for the factual text. However, Richter uses a blurring effect, which he creates by slightly shifting the light-sensitive paper during the photographic enlargement process, in order to literally blur the image’s claim to truth.¹ In addition, Richter humorously rejects the bourgeois idea of the artist as a creative genius with the everydayness of the depiction of the two artists lying in their hotel beds at noon, posing cheerfully.
Hotel Diana was printed in an edition of 80 copies and an unverifiable number of h.c. copies at Birkle + Thomer + Co, Berlin, and is signed and numbered. For the graphic portfolio originally published by Stolpe Verlag, advertising posters were produced on paper from the same screen. The posters feature information about the portfolio, such as the title, participating artists, and publisher, at the bottom of the sheet.
Text: Katrin Seemann

¹ Cf. Hubertus Butin, in: Bernd Slutzky (ed.), Grafik des Kapitalistischen Realismus, Exhib. cat., Frankfurt am Main: Galerie Bernd Slutzky, 1992, p. 26.