Birkenau (painting)

Birkenau
The four paintings
Artist	Gerhard Richter
Year	2014
Catalogue	937
Medium	Oil on canvas
Movement	Abstract
Dimensions	260 cm × 200 cm (100 in × 79 in)

Birkenau is a cycle of four paintings by Gerhard Richter from 2014. The name Birkenau refers to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. Richter transferred four photographs, presumably taken by concentration camp inmate Alberto Errera, depicting the burning of the bodies of murdered Jews in a forest and naked women on the way to the gas chamber, onto four canvases. He gradually painted over the figurative images with a brush and the colors black, gray, green and red and further processed them with a squeegee.

The paintings remain off the art market. Richter's originals have been in the rooms of the Neue Nationalgalerie since 31 March 2023 as part of the Gerhard Richter exhibition. 100 works for Berlin^[1] are exhibited and will remain in Berlin on permanent loan.^[2] With the completion of the new museum right next to it, they will be on display there. There are also two additional full-size photo versions of the Birkenau cycle. Gerhard Richter provided a version to the International Auschwitz Committee. Following the completion of a new building on site, the work at Auschwitz-Birkenau will be open to the public. Another direct print on aluminum hangs in the entrance hall of the Reichstag building.^[3]