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Under his aegis as President of the German Section of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA) there occurred a high point in its already fifty-year history: the annual AICA World Congress. The outward occasion was the 6th 'documenta' show at Kassel in 1977. Known widely as the 'media documenta', that highly controversial event was trampled under foot even more violently than its predecessor by whole swathes of (West) German art criticism. The Congress was held in Cologne, then the vital centre of contemporary art in Germany's West, at a proper distance from the suspect event. This is where Richter lives and worked as influential art critic for the Cologne daily 'Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger'.
That was not, of course, the crucial reason why the AICA of the 'old' federal republic mounted 'its' World Congress in Cologne three years after the AICA of the GDR had mounted the first on German soil. The Cathedral City with its museums and galleries offered the appropriate framework, the inspirational climate, the necessary interest and a suitable venue.
Hence, 'Kunst in den 70er Jahren' (Art in the 70s), a still readable miscellany with a distinctive title that Richter published, provides impressive testimony of the unusual standard of the AICA event and underscores effectively the fact that, in spite of many claims to the contrary, that decade changed the image of art more lastingly than any other in the post-War period.
Richter, who studied art history, dramatics and German language and literature (1951-1957) in Cologne and completed his studies as Dr. Phil., was an attentive observer and, in his art criticism, addressed, described, analyzed and commented the art of the 20th century. This was reflected in numerous artist monographs, including those devoted to El Lissitzky (1958), Georg Muche (1960), Leo Breuer (1969) und Anton Räderscheidt (1927) and, finally, in his once expanded chef d´oeuvre 'Geschichte der Malerei im 20. Jahrhundert' (History of Painting in the 20th Century) (1974/1985), now in its sixth printing. Without prejudice to his self-confessed sympathies, the eye of the art critic Horst Richter was invariably unclouded and his language clear and lucid. He has never shied away from judgments, but has always resisted any temptation to find plenty of nothing to fill an empty page.
Just as he guided the German AICA through turbulent years, quietly but with humour, yet resolutely and with great equanimity, so too did he pursue his art criticism. Besides the 'Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger', his instructive remarks also appeared in the 'General-Anzeiger für Bonn und Umgebung' and the name journal 'Weltkunst'. It was above all constructivist trends that he promoted, though without acting as secular apostle, and not least the advanced art in Eastern Europe, which was mostly suppressed at the time and known only fragmentarily in the West. Richter has now largely withdrawn from art criticism. That a voice like his is missing in our work is painful both for art and for those interested in art. On 26 February, Horst Richter is celebrating his 80th birthday. Hearty congratulations. And: ad multos annos.
Your KLAUS HONNEF
BONN, February 2006
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