The article reviews the first posthumous retrospective of the elusive artist Lutz Bacher, titled "Burning the Days," at the Astrup Fearnley Museum in Oslo. Bacher, who died in 2019 and whose real name was never revealed, is known for her use of found photographs and a pseudonym that led many to mistake her for a German man. The exhibition opens with her work "The Lee Harvey Oswald Interview" (1976–78), in which she discusses photography and perception by using Oswald as a stand-in, and includes other pieces such as "Jackie & Me" (1989) and "Men at War" (1975), all exploring how images and narratives produce meaning.
This retrospective matters because it brings renewed attention to Bacher's influential but underrecognized practice, which challenges viewers to question the relationship between pictures, language, and truth. Her work, spanning from the 1970s onward, anticipates contemporary debates about media manipulation and visual literacy. The show at a major European museum also solidifies her legacy as a key figure in conceptual and appropriation art, prompting a reassessment of her contributions to the art historical canon.