You'll Be My Mirror

red_mirror_richter.jpg
gerhard richter, blood red mirror, cr736-3, 1991, image via gerhard-richter.com via jenettem's twitter/tumblr to cavetocanvas's tumblr

You see the problem: this is exactly the effect I'm trying to get with my Rijksoverheid Rood paintings. Only with a brush.

I totally love Gerhard Richter's mirrors. And his mirror paintings. There was that diptych in Rob Storr's show. And oh man, that installation at Dia Beacon? I think it was the early gray paintings that helped me into the mirrors. Which is probably why I had never noticed that there were red mirror paintings, too. Of course, the mirrors don't look like this.

They look like this:

richter_mirror_735-1_3529.jpg
mirror, grau, cr735-1, 1991, image gerhard-richter

There are at least 44 mirror works so far. Including this one I'd never seen, an edition done in 1986 for the Kunstverein in Dusseldorf. I love Richter's website description of this cork-backed mirror: "This object is not a ready-made but was made to Richter's specific instructions."

richter_mirror_ed_swann356.jpg
I think this one sold at Swann last year may have a little chip in the lower corner.

Richter's specific instructions: make it 210x298mm, a dimension better known as A4. Less well known as the size of the metal panels I'm painting right now.

I think this helps me to sort the things I make into two categories: things I make because other people made them; and things I make and then find out other people made, too.

Since 2001 here at greg.org, I've been blogging about the creative process—my own and those of people who interest me. That mostly involves filmmaking, art, writing, research, and the making thereof.

Many thanks to the Creative Capital | Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Program for supporting greg.org that time.

comments? questions? tips? pitches? email
greg [at] greg [dot ] org

find me on twitter: @gregorg

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first published: November 18, 2011.

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Rijksoverheid Rood 5: Mirror

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