Foldable Dryer

Mediums: oil, canvas.
The Froehlich Collection, Stuttgart (Germany).

At the beginning of his creative career, Gerhard Richter was inspired by advertising, newspaper illustrations and posters. Together with several associates, he created a group of German pop art, which he called “capitalist realism” and which had several exhibitions in Berlin. The painting “Dryer” is also based on a handout, the plot of which the artist redrew onto the canvas, increasing its size and slightly changing the details. In his interpretation, the face of a woman who uses a mobile dryer does not express joy like in advertisements; it is distorted and smeared, and rather resembles a soulless mask. The work carries a social connotation; according to the author himself, it was conceived to express the poverty and hard living conditions of people who have no place even to dry their things and who have to use such devices.