Director's recovery proceeding well

The Wassmann Foundation, Washington, D.C., reports director Jeff Wassmann (pictured at right on a recent trip to Paris) is recovering well from open heart surgery in Australia earlier this month and is expected to return state-side in October. Meanwhile, his staff is busy finalizing last minute details for the repatriation of Johann Dieter Wassmann's remaining boxed assemblage works to Leipzig later this summer.

I've only just returned from Washington myself and I must thank everyone at the foundation for their enthusiastic support of MuseumZeitraum. Without their relentless efforts under increasingly difficult financial circumstances, Johann Dieter Wassmann's pioneering early modernist legacy would risk once again sliding into obscurity. We look forward with great enthusiasm to the arrival of these works in Leipzig as we prepare a hero's welcome for the museum's September 2009 opening.

Museum opening stymied by U.S. funding crisis

MuseumZeitraum Leipzig Director Sophie Vogt today announced the museum would not meet its July 2008 opening deadline after the apparent collapse of the museum’s principle benefactor, the Wassmann Foundation, Washington, D.C. The long-awaited museum will house the works of the pioneering German modernist Johann Dieter Wassmann (1841-1898), a native Leipziger. Two years in construction, the critically-acclaimed MuseumZeitraum facility has been carved out of the shell of a turn-of-the-century Jugendstil building in central Leipzig.

Wassmann Foundation staff blame the institution’s financial failure on the sub-prime mortgage crisis and resultant capital collapse in the United States, but have not been any more forthcoming as to the details of the shortfall.

According to staff in Washington, the Wassmann Foundation’s Kaufman Director, Jeffrey D. Wassmann, recently suffered heart failure while on a visit to Australia and is scheduled to undergo open-heart surgery at Melbourne’s Epworth Hospital early next week. He is not expected to return to the United States for some months.

In November 2007, MuseumZeitraum and the Wassmann Foundation signed a watershed accord under which the foundation would return over 100 of Johann Dieter Wassmann’s early modernist assemblage works to Leipzig. To date, fewer than half of those works have been repatriated to Germany. ARTINFO background link

At a joint news conference at the foundation’s Washington, D.C. headquarters, Mr. Wassmann said at the time that the agreement "corrects the misunderstandings and errors committed in the past." It will "pave the road to new legal and ethical norms for the future," he added.

The pact, the first of its kind between an American foundation and a German museum, was hailed as a model for settling repatriation disputes involving other Western arts institutions.

"Germany has won, the Wassmann Foundation hasn't lost, and what has benefited is culture," MuseumZeitraum’s director, Sophie Vogt, said at the signing ceremony.

MuseumZeitraum Leipzig is now pursuing funding alternatives while it restructures current debt. The museum board has set September 2009 as its new goal for completion of the project.

Roxanna Brown, art historian, 1946 - 2008.

Family, Friends, and Colleagues of Dr. Roxanna Brown:

When a great and good person is taken from us, the shock calls upon us to freeze the daily whirl of activities and face an irreparable loss in our lives.

Your sister, your mother, your daughter, Roxanna Maude Brown was such a person. She touched so many lives over the course of her own. A growing chorus of admiration and affection attests to the broad reach of her life and work.

Roxanna’s journey took her from the role of journalist, the conscience of a nation, documenting from the ground the unfolding tragedy of Vietnam, to her discovery of what would be her life’s work buried literally beneath her feet: the ceramics of Southeast Asia. More than once her pursuit of ceramics study through the countryside of Southeast Asia aroused the suspicion of the forces locked in mortal combat swirling around her. Amidst the horror of war, it must have been hard for them to see the innocence of her search for kilns and shards.

Roxanna became a leading figure in the study of Southeast Asian ceramics, and the culture of which they were a part. Her keen eye and vast empirical knowledge allowed her to shape theories of historical development in Southeast Asia that challenged accepted paradigms. That she was able to pursue her work and achieve what she did without the force of institutional structure supporting her was remarkable. When she ascended to the Directorship of the Southeast Asia Ceramics Museum, she seemed at last fitted with the platform from which to make manifest for the benefit of the public her lifetime of study. The museum is a testament to her sensibility and the rigor of her scholarship. We hope it remains true to her ideals.

Many have spoken of her achievements as a scholar, her unique place in her chosen field of study. For those of us who were blessed to know her personally, her friendship was equally to be cherished. All of us have our own stories of Roxanna, our testimonials as friends and colleagues. Her irrepressible, infectious enthusiasm for Southeast Asian ceramics spread a charmed field of energy about all who came in contact with her. She moved with equal grace through mansions and the most modest of dwellings. She asked for little and shared much. Her gentle generosity and unjudgemental acceptance of difference and frailty in a field all too often marred by intolerance and avarice made her a loved as well as respected figure.

But, compounding this tragedy, this is not a moment of grief at the loss of a loved one slipping away from us after a full, rich life, surrounded by friends and family, whose last moments are made as safe and soft as material comforts can permit. This is a moment of mischance. This is a moment of horror. This is a moment of grief not only for the friend we have lost, but anguish for the suffering, the unjust, unnecessary, suffering of her last days and nights on earth. A vulnerable, trusting, undemanding soul thrust alone into the netherworld of the institutional at its most cold and brutal. It is unspeakable. Many of us have discussed how best to pursue the questions that arise concerning the circumstances of her most tragic and untimely death. We wish to be sensitive to your feelings and desires as we move forward. We feel there are many who need to answer for what has happened. We do not seek to return vengeance for victimization, but we seek illumination, and justice.

It is not only the cruelty of Roxanna’s incarceration we seek to redress, but the slur cast upon her name by the accusations that prompted her arrest. For a scholar of such integrity, who tirelessly sought to raise the level of ethical practice in the trade in ceramics, it is a cruel irony that her reputation has been thus tainted. We cannot bring back Roxanna, but we can try our best to clear her of any shadow of wrongdoing, and restore her good name for the future.

For all of us who knew her as a scholar and as a person, we will remember her always as she was–dedicated, generous, gentle, warm. Roxanna will be greatly missed.

In sorrow,

Caverlee Cary
Nhung Tuyet Tran
Pattaratorn Chirapravati
Hiram Woodward
Craig Reynolds
Melody Rodari
Alicia Carlos
Charles Keyes
Joyce Clark
Judith Henchy
Susan Kepner
Rebecca Hall
Louise Cort
Michele Thompson
Robert Brown
Emmy Bunker
Shawn McHale
Edward Miller
Boreth Ly
Bonnie Brereton
Charles Wheeler
Carol Stratton
Charnvit Kasetsiri
Leedom Lefferts
BJ Terwiel
Louis Gabaude
Thak Chaloemtiarana
Stanley O’Connor
Barbara Gaerlan
Nguyen-Vo Thu-Huong
Richard Page
Eric Charles Thompson
Anne R Hansen
Philippe Peycam
Charles Keith
Christina Firpo
Nicola Tannenbaum
Larry Ashmun
Nora Taylor
William Lavely
Donald Mccallum
Nguyen Ngoc BICH
Bin Wong
Nick Menzies
Michael Ross
Philip Taylor
Darryl Johnson
Laurie Sears
Paul Kratowska
Quynh Kieu
Chan Kieu
Laichen Sun
Richard A. Ruth
Trude Bennett
Christine McDaniel
Justin McDaniel
Cari Coe
Jim Cobbe
Scott Laderman
John Stevenson
Karen Adams
Ben Kerkvliet
David Rehfuss
Hue-Tam Ho Tai
Sarah Grant
Geoff Wade
Volker Grabowsky
Kelly Meister
Nathan McGovern
Liam C Kelley
Anthony Zola
Ronachai Krisadaolarn
Vasudha Narayanan
Julia White
Vasilijs Mihailovs
Susan Lee
Nancy Tingley
Tana Li
Suteera Nittayananta
Douglas Padgett
Erik Davis
John Amos Marston
Haydon Cherry
Matthew Wheeler
Donald Swearer
Sommai Premchit
Ngô Thanh Nhàn
Robert & Carol Retka
Robert Acker
Melissa Pashigian
Bonnie Baskin
Philip Alperson
Tran Phuong Ky
Dao Hung
Nancy Wiener
John Guy
Ron Otsuka
Doris Wiener
Joseph Gerena
Kathleen Gillogly
David Lovell
Todd Perreira
Deborah Wong
Rene Lysloff
Hendrick Maier
David Biggs
Christina Schwenkel
Lan Duong
Tamara Ho
Muhammad Ali
Mariam Lam
Sally Ann Ness
Cecily Cook
Deborah Tooker
Catherine Raymond
Bokyung Kim
Dawn Rooney
Nha Trang Pensinger
William L. Pensinger
John N. Miksic
Goh Geok Yian

A final resting place

The New Year began on a solemn note with the re-interment on Johann Dieter Wassmann's remains in a purpose-built crypt below the main galleries here at MuseumZeitraum Leipzig. The artist's remains had previously rested at Südriedhof, south of the city. The service took place on January 6, 2008 and was attended by a small number of relatives, artists, city officials and museum staff. It was on January 6, 1898 that Johann slipped and fell under a tram, an accident that would claim his life two months later.

Just before Christmas the first shipment of Johann's works arrived in Leipzig as part of our repatriation agreement with the Wassmann Foundation, Washington, D.C., allowing them to be arranged on the walls as a tribute to his life and ongoing legacy.

One last look

The announcement on Thursday that an agreement has been reached with the Wassmann Foundation that will see the works of Johann Dieter Wassmann repatriated to Germany has been met with overwhelming joy here in Leipzig (see official statement below). Before the works leave the United States, however, here's one last look at these beloved pieces in situ, as they have appeared for the last quarter century at the Wassmann Foundation's Washington, D.C. headquarters. Our tour is graciously led by Kaufmann Director Jeffrey D. Wassmann.

Museum reaches landmark repatriation accord

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Washington, D.C., November 1, 2007 — Announcing a "new page of cooperation," MuseumZeitraum Leipzig and the Wassmann Foundation today signed a watershed accord under which the foundation will return over 100 nineteenth century assemblage works by the early modernist Johann Dieter Wassmann (1841-1898). For the past decade the artist’s Leipzig descendants have argued these works were removed in 1912 from storage in Weimar without their knowledge, consent or agreement.

In exchange for yielding the works to the Saxon museum — including the prized 33-work Der Ring des Nibelungen (Ring Cycle) 1895-1897 — the foundation will retain the artist’s large trove of photographic works and continue to oversee conservation. The foundation will also provide financial assistance for completion of a new home for the museum opening in July 2008.

At a joint news conference at the foundation’s Washington, D.C. headquarters, Kaufman Director Jeffrey D. Wassmann said the agreement "corrects the misunderstandings and errors committed in the past."

It will "pave the road to new legal and ethical norms for the future," he added. At the same time, Mr. Wassmann said, the accord "opens a new phase of collaboration which does not deprive the many visitors to our foundation of the opportunity to experience Johann’s legacy."

The pact, the first of its kind between an American foundation and a German museum, is being hailed as a model for settling repatriation disputes involving other Western arts institutions.

"Germany has won, the Wassmann Foundation hasn't lost, and what has benefited is culture," MuseumZeitraum’s director, Sophie Vogt, said at the signing ceremony.

Under the terms of the accord, the Wassmann Foundation will return a total of 115 works to Germany, among them Arteriae Pelvis, Abdomimis, et Pectoris, 1883, The Case of the City of London 1894, 16969, 1896, Vorworts! 1897, and the much-loved Nietzsche 306P 1897.

The works were shipped from Weimar to the Port of Baltimore in 1912 by the artist’s son-in-law, Edward Liszt, where they were taken into the care of Johann’s nephews, Friedrich, Dieter and Henry Wassmann. The works remained in storage, first in Washington, D.C. and later in Harrisburg, PA until 1969, when the foundation was established in the will of Gladys Wassmann. Since that time, the estate has been solely governed by the Wassmann Foundation, a role that will now be jointly shared by the two institutions.

Family members in Leipzig had long believed the works were destroyed in World War II, only becoming aware of their continued existence in the early 1990s after the reunification of Germany.

Of the works that will remain in Washington, Mr. Wassmann said, "The photographs of Johann Dieter Wassmann provide the missing link between the meticulous, but still largely prescriptive street imagery of mid-19th century photographer Charles Marville, and the lyrical melancholy of Eugene Atget in the early 20th century. As a predecessor to his fellow countrymen Heinrich Zille and August Sander, Johann discreetly anticipated what vast potential the photographic arts held for the modernist era."

Ms. Vogt commented that, “The restitution of the works represents the healing of a wound. We are grateful to the Wassmann Foundation for safekeeping and conserving these works, but it is now time for them to come home.”

"This is another step forward," she said of the agreement. "But Leipzig must also hold up its own end by seeing that the doors of MuseumZeitraum open wide in July 2008 to Johann’s many passionate admirers on both sides of the Atlantic.”

MuseumZeitraum Leipzig

After travels and travails more varied than I'd care to mention, the MuseumZeitraum Leipzig blog returns this week with news, views and all the rest from Leipzig and beyond. Stayed tuned... we're back!

Is modernity our antiquity?

Dada and Surrealism were still years away when Johann Dieter Wassmann struck out with this monumental, if misunderstood, work, “Of the Stealing of Women” 1896. Never before published or exhibited, the work merges an early 18th century English case-law text, open to a page describing the (limited) rights of women from being, yes, that’s right, stolen, with a medical engraving of mid-19th century bandaging practices, all linked by a harmony of violin pegs and tailpiece. In his notes on the work, Johann enthusiastically describes the piece in terms that we now might read as empowerment and liberation, closing with an enigmatic quote from his beloved muse, Goethe: ‘Man sieht nur, was man weiss.’ One sees only what one knows. Some critics have hesitated at themes they (mis)read as bondage and repression, with one Australian curator going so far as to have the work removed from the exhibition BLEEDING NAPOLEON at the 2003 Melbourne International Arts Festival.

Personally, I believe the work can be read as a nod to the rising sentiment across Europe in support of women's suffrage. Three years earlier, in 1893, New Zealand was the first country to introduce universal suffrage, generating headlines world-wide. The use of an English case-law book would suggest some reference to the British empire here. The image of a woman bandaged suggests a play on the word suffrage. Violin pegs are, of course, necessary to tune the instrument, implying an adjustment or refinement of the social politic to enhance the role of women in 19th century society.

Whatever its inner meaning, the work stands as a significant precursor to the explosive power Dada and Surrealism would have on the course of 20th century modernism.

Is modernity our antiquity? What is bare life?

Johann Dieter Wassmann, Nietzsche 306P, 1897. 370 x 280 x 100 mm.

In recent posts I've been examining the first of three leitmotifs posed by the Documenta 12 team, "Is modernity our antiquity?" If I may, I'd like to skip ahead to the second question for a moment, "What is bare life?" as further means of addressing the first.

In 1889, Friedrich Nietzsche suffered a mental breakdown, often attributed to his contraction of syphilis, resulting in his admission to various clinics before he was moved to Naumburg, where his mother looked after him until her death in 1897. At this point his sister Elisabeth shifted him to Weimar, where she continued his care, as well as promoting his legacy and allowing the occasional audience with guests until his death in 1900.

It was in Weimar that Johann Dieter Wassmann briefly visited Nietzsche, but finding only a shell of a man he returned home to produce this work, depicting simply and eloquently the empty collar of the man, an organ stop with the name 'Nietzsche' printed on it, and an opium-stained bone apothecary spoon; a life stripped bare. These objects are placed against a dappled blue wall, reflecting Nietzsche's penchant for blue-lensed spectacles.

Johann's ability to take the contemporary moment of his visit with Nietzsche and so confidently convert it into the iconography of modernism speaks legions about the raw vitality of the modern movement at the dawn of the 20th century. In no time, however, modernity fell victim to the second law of thermodynamics, with entropy holding sway, but it was not until the close of the century that we realised the paradigm had simply collapsed en route.

Today it is essentially modernity stripped bare that we address as artists and curators, an ongoing post-mortem of abject failure. So in this sense is modernity our antiquity? The answer is not so clear.

Documenta 12 takes a beating.

After being savaged by the English-language press earlier in the month, Documenta 12 has now been ravaged by the elements, with Ai Weiwei's Template collapsing in high winds last week. In more recent days, the Plastic Palace has failed to keep Kassel's heavy rains out with roof vents found to be faulty and refusing to close (although we are happy to report there have been no fatalities of either art or art lovers, excluding Template, that is). On low land near the river, the Aue Pavilion is fast becoming the Eau Pavilion, so bring your Wellington boots if you're planning to visit anytime soon. With 90 days to go, let's hope the rest holds together for late arrivals.

Is modernity our antiquity? Well, the ruins of Documenta 12 would certainly suggest as much.

The Zeitraum gardens

Work continues at MuseumZeitraum Leipzig toward our mission of opening to the public next summer. This week the foundations went in for our garden terrace. The terrace is a tribute to one of Johann's best known works, his photograph of the Freundschaftstempel in Potsdam, 1896 (below).

Frederick the Great had this small, elegant temple built in 1768 in memory of his sister, Wilhemine of Bayreuth by Gontard, according to his own sketches and plans. It was modelled on the Temple of Apollo in the Amalthea garden at Neuruppin, court architect Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff's first work.

Is modernity our antiquity? Hmmm... the lines blur!
JOHANN DIETER WASSMANN, Freundschaftstempel, Potsdam, 1896. Albumen silver print, 18 x 23 cm, WF 743020.

Is modernity our antiquity?

Earlier this evening I was delighted to bump into curator Abigail von Bibera at Documenta 12's Museum Fridericianum. Over drinks she made the observation that the creative process behind Hazoume Romould's African 'masks'(see below) struck her as remarkably similar to the thinking that must have gone into Johann Dieter Wassmann's Prince Otto von Bismarck, 1896, pictured here. Good spot Abigail. Which again raises the question, is modernity our antiquity? Or as I discussed in an earlier blog, is it just our Hotel California?

First Look: Hazoume Romuald @ Documenta 12

Is modernity our antiquity? Hazoume Romuald proffers an answer.

The morning after the night before.

With revelers still wandering the streets of Kassel from the opening party last night, Documenta 12 is just a few hours away from officially opening to the public. Here's a photo op from earlier in the week of the artists selected for this year's event. I've uploaded a fairly large file, so click on it to enlarge if you want to better see who's who. While I managed a sneak preview of several venues yesterday, Walter Robinson has written quite a comprehensive piece for ArtNet so click through for his first impressions and I'll fill you in with more in the coming days.

Is modernity our antiquity? The answer is nigh.

Documenta 12 doesn't officially open till the weekend, but a number of works have been erected in public spaces here in Kassel and they're already drawing interest from locals and early arrivals. This afternoon I ran out to have a look at Shipwreck and Workers (version 3) (pictured) by Allan Sekula at the Herkules (mentioned in my last post). The work comprises a progression of large photograghs, several of which can be seen here to right of the Wasserspiel. Sekula hails from Erie, PA and was also heavily featured in Documenta 11.

Unfortunately, the rain that plagued the opening days of the Venice Biennale seems to have followed the art mob north and moments ago began bucketing down in droves as I waited for my tram back into town from Schloss Wilhelmshöhe. With more of the same forecast throughout the weekend, let's hope King Roger's Plastic Palace isn't made of cotton candy.

Blackberry permitting, I'll duly keep you posted. Tschüss.

1 down, 2 to go.

As the art hoards head north from Venice to Basel this week, the citizens of Kassel are enjoying one last moment of calm before the onslaught begins on their own city, with the opening of Documenta 12 this weekend.

Several readers have asked advice on what else there is to do in Kassel beyond Documenta, with the standard reply being, "Nothing," but I beg to differ. Kassel's museums offer a cabinet of curiosities well worth pursuing when you need a break from the newest and latest at Documenta. While The German Wallpaper Museum may not be to everyone's liking, the home of the Brothers Grimm is a short walk from main Documenta venues, offering a welcome respite. Across the street from the Grimms is the Neue Gallery, featuring perhaps Joseph Beuys best known work, The Pack, 1969 (above), as well as many landmark German paintings from the late 20th century.

Even closer to Documenta is the rather fabulous Museum of Natural History in the Ottoneum. You'll pass it daily walking from the Museum Fridericianum to L'Orangerie, but few of Document's 650,000 viewers will ever step into this marvelous little museum of wonders.

Also worth a diversion is Schloss Wilhelmshöhe on the edge of town, which houses the Old Masters Gallery. Choose a Wednesday or Sunday and you'll experience one of the great marvels of eighteenth century mechanical engineering, as you watch the Wasserspiel cascade down the mountain in it's half hour trek from the Herkules statue on the summit, finishing in a 52 meter jet of water in the gardens of the Schloss.

Unlike Venice and Basel, opening night in Kassel is a public event, with a grand party for the entire city kicking off Friday night.

Is modernity our antiquity? Finally, we'll learn the truth according to Roger & Ruth this weekend. See you there.

Zeitraum Rising

I've just realised I haven't given you an update on MusesumZeitraum's progress in some time. Too busy debating the great issues. Here's a shot of Klaus Richter in the Leipzig foundry where our fabulous new staircase is being fabricated. When installed, this sculptural wonder will lead up from the ground floor galleries to the photographic rooms.

Is modernity our antiquity? Not at MuseumZeitraum, where modernity remains the order of the day.

When men were men and Beuys was Beuys. Documenta 12 enjoys the shade of D7.

With the opening of Documenta 12 just a month away, I ventured out west to Kassel last week to visit King Roger and Queen Ruth and gaze upon their majestic new Plastic Palace on the grounds of L’Orangerie. If you don’t mind the distant roar of generators and compressors keeping the air conditioning flowing, and you ignore the implications for Documenta 12’s carbon footprint, it’s a spectacular sight, even without the art installed.

It is not possible in my experience, however, to visit Kassel without feeling the overwhelming presence of an installation that returns to life this time every year, that of Joseph Beuys 7000 Eichen (7000 Oaks). Planting of the trees began at Documenta 7 in 1982 and continued for five years with support from the Dia Foundation, with the last of the 7000 planted at D8.

25 years on, the oaks are reaching a more graceful maturity than most of us. And hopefully, with the buds open and the leaves growing to fullness this month, Prince Joseph’s grand gesture will be busy converting King Roger’s carbon dioxide output back into fresh clean oxygen.

One of my favourite gifts for artist friends is to pass along a handful of acorns from these sacred oaks after a trip to Kassel. I’ve even been known to hop off the train to spend an hour collecting acorns before jumping on the next train when my travels take me through Kassel. This year I loaded up a shoe-box full from around the University and have been busy wrapping them up and posting them out. The notion of the artist’s seed spreading across the globe even after death is terribly modernist, I know, but all credit to Prince Joseph for such a far-sighted effort.

Is modernity our antiquity? In this case, sadly yes. What is bare life? Prince Joseph’s seed – the acorn – I believe. Was tun? Plant trees, King Roger, to repent for your sins!

"Controversy is normal with us"

Documenta 12 artistic director Roger M. Buergel offers members of the press a guided tour of exhibition venues earlier today in Kassel.

Buergel made clear he has won the argument with architect Jean Philippe Vassal that I've been reporting on in recent days and the Plastic Palace will be fully air conditioned. Roger pointedly told the press, "The architecture has to subordinate itself to the art." As to such high-brow concerns as his leitmotif, Is modernity our antiquity? we'll get back to that after the gossip dies downs.

Documenta 12: better pack your Hawaiian Tropic

Last week I gave you a first look at the new Plastic Pavilion rising before Kassel’s Orangerie for Documenta 12 this summer. This week I can confirm rumours circulating around the city that artistic director Roger Buergel isn’t altogether happy with the pavilion's architects, Jean-Philippe Vassal and Anne Lacaton.

Die Süddeutsche Zeitung is running an interview with the French team today in which they take the position that the structures should live and breathe Kassel's natural climate. Roger's not so sure.

"The problem is not the form of the pavilion," explains Vassal. "It's the system. One should feel the atmosphere of fresh air in the [Karlsaue] park, close to the river. In the summer, the Karlsaue should become a resting place that is as natural as possible and understood as part of the exterior. The climate should be felt inside, too, in a way that's different from the traditional museum. . . A greenhouse should not be sealed off."

Buergel, on the other hand is panicking that hanging art works -- many on loan from institutional collections -- in a hot and sweaty greenhouse all summer may not make him the most popular director among conservation staff. Word has it there are already threats of works being pulled from the show.

The architects argue the system meets Buergel's concept of an India-inspired "palm grove" where guests can congregate and discuss art and society, while Buergel is insisting his metaphor is being taken a little too far.

"The most important factor for the museum climate is the sweat of each individual visitor," Vassal says. "There, a purely artificial atmosphere becomes a problem. If Buergel has an image in mind of people sitting under trees in India, then he should think about what kind of architecture comes closest to this image."

Is modernity our antiquity, Roger asks? It will be soon enough if he starts shipping home Ruschas and Richters left faded, blistered and cracking from a summer in the sun.