Richter based this series of paintings on newspaper photographs and other images from the events surrounding October 18, 1977. By painting this image he has separated it from its caption, and therefore removed it from the words used to give it context. Despite this gesture, he still considers the work a way of reporting. The woman depicted was one of four members of the Red Army Faction (RAF), a German left-wing terrorist group that perpetrated a number of kidnappings and killings throughout the 1970s. In re-imaging this woman as a dark, blurred painted portrait, he calls attention to the way memory and truth are also blurry and opaque.

Submitted by Emily Shoyer, Project Coordinator, Office of the Director for the Opening of the New Museum