WENDY WEITMAN: We’re looking at Gerhard Richter's Elisabeth II.
DEBBY WYE: … Richter began with a small newspaper clipping and then re-photographed it, to blur the image and enlarge it. He emphasized the dot pattern that is part of news photos, but is usually invisible to the naked eye. His manipulated image seems to be a critique of how the mass media influences our thinking about people and events. This is not a celebration of the queen.
We're calling this section of the exhibition Mass Mediums because artists adopted techniques that were common for commercial or everyday uses, and they often chose photographic subject matter they found in newspapers and magazines. This was a big change in printmaking, where artists had traditionally depended on etching, woodcut, and lithography.
WENDY WEITMAN: Now let’s consider an image on the adjoining wall. It’s the second one to the left, Sigmar Polke’s Girlfriends I. (Pause) This offset print is another example of an artist adopting subject matter from the mass media, and also co-opting its techniques. It’s based on a newspaper ad. By enlarging the dot pattern, Polke emphasizes the artificiality of the image and the subliminal desire built up by the media through advertising. You can almost see the newsprint from the other side showing through. He left in those imperfections