Contemporary artist Virginia Nimarkoh painted Untitled #1 (After Gerhard Richter, Betty, 1988) in 2001. Her painting replicates the famous photorealist portrait by Gerhard Richter, replacing a young African-American woman for Richter's daughter, engaging us to reconsider the determinability of an image and the ways minority representation expands the narrative of a conceptually unmovable artwork.

Nimarkoh's painting invited us to revisit Richter's piece, which at that time broke many conventions in portraiture. The daughter turns away from the camera, and the viewer looks into one of Richter’s monochrome works from the mid-70s. The composition achieves intimacy through extreme awkwardness.

Conceptually, the tension builds from the uncertainty about the reason the figure is looking back. Is she about to look forward? Was this the instant when Richter is about to press the shutter button, and Betty decides to unexpectedly look away?

We will reenact both paintings' exact position using a different subject: ourselves, a family member, a friend.

If you'd like to view the paintings we talk about in this episode, watch the video format on our YouTube Channel: https://youtu.be/RJX5hxAu49k