Munich after the Rain

1986–7

© Estate of A.R. Penck

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In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

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Artist: A.R. Penck (Ralf Winkler) 1939 – 2017
Original title: München nach dem Regen
Medium: Lithograph on paper
Dimensions: Image: 480 x 650 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Purchased 1987
Reference: P77199

Catalogue entry

P77199 Munich after the Rain 1986–7
München nach dem Regen

Lithograph 480 × 650 (18 7/8 × 25 5/8) on wove Japan paper 645 × 785 (25 3/8 × 30 7/8); printed by Karl Imhof, Munich and published by Maximilian Verlag Sabine Knust, Munich in an edition of 30
Inscribed ‘AR. Penck’ below image b.r. and ‘11/30’ below image b.l.
Purchased from Maximilian Verlag Sabine Knust, Munich (Grant-in-Aid) 1987

Printed in black, ‘Munich after the Rain’ depicts several figures in a landscape. Faces can be seen in the dark edges of the image at the bottom right and top left corners, and a clock with its hands at twelve o'clock is depicted in the upper right-hand corner. According to a letter to the compiler dated 21 July 1992 from Stephan M. Schuster, of Maximilian Verlag, the title relates to radioactive rain that fell over the city of Munich after the accident in April 1986 at the Chernobyl nuclear plant in the former Soviet Union. The plant leaked large amounts of radioactive pollution which was carried across Europe and into Germany by the wind. Schuster wrote that this was the only image Penck made in response to the nuclear catastrophe and that he made it immediately after details of the accident became known in the West.

Published in:
Tate Gallery: Illustrated Catalogue of Acquisitions 1986-88, London 1996