Gerhard Richter BIRKENAU opened last month in the Polish village of Oświęcim. The permanent exhibition pavilion includes full-scale facsimile editions of Richter's 2014 Birkenau series of abstract paintings; reproductions of the photos of the Birkenau extermination camp taken by Jewish Sonderkommandos in 1944, which served as Richter's basis for his paintings; and facsimile editions of a 1991 series of Grey Mirror paintings. Which in press coverage so far just get dismissed as grey mirrors, though they are actually photo reproductions of glass mirror paintings, in face-mounted acrylic on aluminum.
By compelling visitors to see themselves in a mirror while surrounded by evidence and repetitions of a genocide, I think these are the most significant works in this show.
[s/o @csantdotinfo for the heads up on the Guardian's review]
