Gerhard Richter’s The Joy of Living will be rediscovered

The unveiling of the artist’s 20-meter mural will turn into a concept

Gerhard Richter’s diploma work, which was hidden under tiles and plaster for almost half a century, will be revealed soon. The 24-year-old artist created “Joy of Life” back in 1956 in the foyer of the German Hygiene Museum in Dresden. And in 1979, a large-scale work depicting socialist “beauty” was closed due to Richter’s criticism of socialist realism. Finally, after many years of deliberation, the museum decided to restore the fresco and will do it conceptually.

Restorer Albrecht Körber took on the task of unveiling the fresco by one of the most famous and expensive artists of our time. It will start on March 9, and everyone will be able to watch the process. His work will turn into something more than a simple restoration. “It’s a metaphor for the process of unraveling the layers of history,” Körber himself explained.

To understand what he means, it is worth remembering the history of the 20-meter work. Young Gerhard Richter created the mural five years before fleeing Soviet East Germany to West Germany. Then, in 1956, he was a graduate of the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts. His work at the German Hygiene Museum was written about in the newspapers and was received favorably. But after leaving for Germany, at the Documenta exhibition in Kassel in 1977, the artist criticized the socialist realism of East Germany. Then the GDR authorities ordered the fresco to be painted over.

In 1994, the German Hygiene Museum underwent restoration and the fresco was reopened to the public. True, not completely: two sections were cleared. However, in 2002, during the next renovation, the exposed parts of the fresco were again painted over with whitewash. The museum then said that according to the design of the building, erected in 1930, the walls should remain white. And Richter himself did not want his early work to be shown to the public. “It’s better to spend it on something more artistically valuable,” the master said then.

Now the museum’s view has changed. Apparently, they believe that the fresco of such a renowned master will attract more attention to the institution. Over the past 10 years, prices for his works have increased significantly. In 2015, his “Abstract Painting” (1986) was auctioned for a record $46.3 million. The 92-year-old author himself now remains silent. Now he leads a solitary life.

The unveiling of the mural after decades of oblivion will definitely be an event. Despite attention to this work in the 1950s, only one black and white photograph has survived, which captures The Joy of Living in its entirety. Now, taking into account the difficult path that Richter went through in art, experimenting with abstraction, expressionism and hyperrealism, it will appear in a completely different light.