"Imprecision, uncertainty, transience, incompleteness": Gerhard Richter’s "October 18, 1977" and Don DeLillo’s "Baader-Meinhof"

This article explores the relationship between Gerhard Richter’s October 18, 1977 and Don DeLillo’s short story “Baader-Meinhof”. Richter’s depiction of the deaths of members of the Red Army Faction draws from original photographic sources. Richter blurs these images thereby questioning aspects of obfuscation and the paradoxical clarity of incompleteness. DeLillo’s story is centred on a discussion about the paintings which quickly transforms into a narrative of coercion and stalking. This paper considers how visual art can be represented in fiction finding parallels between Richter’s and DeLillo’s use of repetition, haziness and uncertainty to problematise the act of viewing.