Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Betty
Gerhard Richter German
Not on view
Richter made two paintings of his first child, Betty, in 1977, about a decade after his approach to family portraits had shifted from grisaille to color. In one, the position of his daughter’s face and her cosmetically highlighted juvenile features exert an oppressive sense of forced intimacy between sitter and painter, and between painting and spectator. The other is more forgiving to both sitter and viewer through the estranging veil of the blur, Richter’s most famous device. Both compositions highlight a trio of primary colors, and taken together hint at the artist’s keen awareness of the seemingly inextricable and unalterable nature of filial bonds, the bounds of painting, and paternal mastery.
Due to rights restrictions, this image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.
