Tyler Green just published a tremendous series of posts about Gerhard Richter’s paintings “Onkel Rudi” and “Tante Marianne” (part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4), with today’s post connecting the painting to how contemporary artists are reacting to torture committed under George W Bush.

I think that Richter’s work is slightly more subtle than Green portrays it, though. Richter not only reminded people that they might have had a Nazi in their past, but he also reminded people that if their father had been a soldier but not a Nazi he would have still been responsible for the Nazi regime’s crimes. I think that’s an extremely important nuance, especially in the light of many Germans claiming after the war that since they had not been Nazis there were simply not responsible for anything.