The movie Never Look Away depicts Kurt Barnert’s — as a representation of artist Gerhard Richter’s — quest for artistic enlightenment. His resulting style is blurred painted photographs.
In the film, Kurt talks about how photos are unique in that they elicit a specific response from the viewer, different than that of a painting. He is trying to replicate this emotion with his paintings. Like all of Richter’s paintings, Ulrike Meinhof’s portraits are copied from photographs of her hanging, but blurred. In the film Never Look Away, Kurt often puts his hand in front of his face to blur his focus. I think he’s doing it in order to not look away. Maybe blurring difficult images retain their reality, but make them easier for audiences to look at. Therefore, these realities are presentable to a wider audience. The reality of Meinhof’s portraits remain consistent, but makes so that we don’t have to look away. Maybe the blur allows for our minds to fill in the gaps.