Dec. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Gerhard Richter’s paintings of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy are to be reunited for the first time at London’s National Portrait Gallery.

Pictures of Jacqueline Kennedy immediately after her husband’s killing in 1963 will be a highlight of the first-ever survey of Richter’s portraiture, starting in February 2009, the gallery announced today.

Born in Dresden, married three times, and now 76, Richter will show some 40 paintings -- traced from photographic prints or slide projections -- of celebrities, fellow artists and family members.

Richter’s portraits, unlike the images produced by his contemporary Andy Warhol, are unglamorous depictions of their subjects, and often conceal tragedy, explained curator Paul Moorhouse at a presentation in the gallery’s top-floor restaurant. The artist’s message: that “you can never, in portraiture, get to know what the person is like.”

“We’re not going to be short of visitors,” said Director Sandy Nairne, justifying the focus on an artist not widely known in the U.K. “We believe Richter is of outstanding importance.”

Other coming exhibitions:

- “Constable Portraits: The Painter and His Circle” (March 5 to June 14, 2009)

- “Gay Icons” (July 2 to Oct. 18, 2009); no details are yet available.

- “Beatles to Bowie: the ‘60s Exposed” (Oct. 15, 2009, to Jan. 24, 2010); no details are yet available.

“Gerhard Richter Portraits” will run from Feb. 26 to May 31, 2009. For more information: http://www.npg.org.uk or +44-20-7306- 0055.

To contact the writer on this story: Farah Nayeri in London at Farahn@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: December 11, 2008 19:55 EST