Michael Müller & Lukas Töpfer - Am Abgrund der Bilder – „Birkenau“

This book is dedicated to works by Michael Müller (*1970) commenting on four paintings by Gerhard Richter (*1932) entitled "Birkenau"; they aim to reappraise the cruel historical fact of Auschwitz II/Birkenau extermination camp in various artistic forms. Direct as the critical comments on Richter may be, they are accompanied by many less conspicuous, quieter, one might even say wounded works by Müller, which were shown at the Museum im Kulturspeicher Würzburg in 2022/23 and will be exhibited at St. Matthew’s Church in Berlin’s Kulturforum in spring 2023 to coincide with the publication of this book. The thematic focus of both exhibitions is the so-called "Sonderkommando", a work detachment of selected Jewish prisoners from 1942 to 1944/45, who were forced to prepare for and clear up after the extermination of their fellow human beings under SS supervision and facing a constant threat to their lives. The book documents the key works of this demanding artistic investigation by Michael Müller and contextualises them in a detailed essay by art historian Lukas Töpfer (*1988).