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Auction archive: Lot number 10

Gerhard Richter

Estimate
£2,500,000 - £3,500,000
ca. US$4,023,592 - US$5,633,029
Price realised:
£2,434,500
ca. US$3,918,174
Auction archive: Lot number 10

Gerhard Richter

Estimate
£2,500,000 - £3,500,000
ca. US$4,023,592 - US$5,633,029
Price realised:
£2,434,500
ca. US$3,918,174
Beschreibung:

10 Gerhard Richter Weiß (White) 1988 oil on canvas 112 x 102 cm. (44 1/8 x 40 1/8 in.) Signed and dated 'Richter 1988' on the reverse.
Provenance Marian Goodman Gallery, New York Exhibited Rotterdam, Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Gerhard Richter 1988/89, 15 October – 03 December 1989 Literature K. Schampers,A. Tilroe, B.Buchloh, Gerhard Richter 1988/89, Exh. Cat., Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, 1989, p. 161 (mentioned), p. 105 (illustrated) B. Buchloh, ed., Gerhard Richter Werkübersicht/Catalogue Raisonné 1962–1993, vol. III, Ostfildern-Ruit, 1993, no. 685-1 (illustrated) Video Gerhard Richter 'Weiß (White)', 1988 "In the case of the abstractions, I get vague notions of pictures that are just asking to be painted. That’s how it starts, but nearly always the result is not at all what I imagined." Gerhard Richter’s artistic process is one of seeking rather than finding, building his canvas through sumptuous layers and gestures of paint. 'Weiß', 1988, is an exemplary example from this canonical Abstraktes Bild series. Peter Sumner, director and head of Contemporary Art in London presents Gerhard Richter's 'Weiß (White)', a highlight from the Contemporary Art Evening Sale on 16 October 2013. Catalogue Essay “ In the case of the abstractions, I get vague notions of pictures that are just asking to be painted. That’s how it starts, but nearly always the result is not at all what I imagined.” GERHARD RICHTER “ If I paint an abstract picture I neither know in advance what it is supposed to look like, norwhere I intend to go when I am painting, what could be done, to what end. For this reason thepainting is a quasi blind, desperate effort […] the urgent desire to build something meaningful and useful.” GERHARD RICHTER Devoting his illustrious career to the exploration and mastery of oil paint, Gerhard Richter’s legacy is one unparalleled in contemporary art. First conceiving of his series of Abstraktes Bild by 1976, the artist had already proven himself as an accomplished painter of real life subjects and historical subject matter. Since the inception of this body of work, his resignation to discover, rather than forge, has continued to yield limitless artistic rewards with his visually stunning Abstraktes Bild series. Richter’s artistic process is one of seeking rather than finding, building his canvas through sumptuous layers and gestures of paint. The present lot, Weiß, 1988, is an exemplary offering from this canonical series, in which each painting is “a model or metaphor about a possibility of social coexistence […] bring[ing] together the most disparate and mutually contradictory elements, alive and viable, in the greatest possible freedom.” (Gerhard Richter quoted inGerhard Richter, eds.M. Hetschel and H. Friedel, 1998, London, 1998, p. 11). Here, the artist achieves this freedom through a rigorous and meticulous technique involving the removal and reapplication of separate layers of paint. With the variance of each layer, chance delivers an unpredictable configuration of colours. The final result is nothing short of sublime; the painting, though undulating with colours below a quiet surface, achieves a holistic iridescence. It ebbs and flows through darker and lighter scales of grey, its chromatic lifeblood. In Weiß, translating to White, the relationship between light and darkness and the absence and presence of colours becomes symbiotic. Indeed, Richter’s oeuvre, which includes his early colour chart paintings as well as his later portraits, is characterized by bold organizations of colour. In this manner, his work equates to a complex intellectual study in both mathematics and optical experience. Distinguished in such work as Drei Grau übereinander (Three greys one upon the other), 1966/84, and other colour charts, these particular works− while responses to Pop art and Minimalism− also chronicle his career as a scientific artist, one who finds experimental uses for the conventional palette. It is in these paintings that we see Richter’s most vigorous rational pursuits and a crossroads of artistry and intellect. His abstract series, represented here in in W

Auction archive: Lot number 10
Auction:
Datum:
16 Oct 2013
Auction house:
Phillips
London
Beschreibung:

10 Gerhard Richter Weiß (White) 1988 oil on canvas 112 x 102 cm. (44 1/8 x 40 1/8 in.) Signed and dated 'Richter 1988' on the reverse.
Provenance Marian Goodman Gallery, New York Exhibited Rotterdam, Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Gerhard Richter 1988/89, 15 October – 03 December 1989 Literature K. Schampers,A. Tilroe, B.Buchloh, Gerhard Richter 1988/89, Exh. Cat., Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, 1989, p. 161 (mentioned), p. 105 (illustrated) B. Buchloh, ed., Gerhard Richter Werkübersicht/Catalogue Raisonné 1962–1993, vol. III, Ostfildern-Ruit, 1993, no. 685-1 (illustrated) Video Gerhard Richter 'Weiß (White)', 1988 "In the case of the abstractions, I get vague notions of pictures that are just asking to be painted. That’s how it starts, but nearly always the result is not at all what I imagined." Gerhard Richter’s artistic process is one of seeking rather than finding, building his canvas through sumptuous layers and gestures of paint. 'Weiß', 1988, is an exemplary example from this canonical Abstraktes Bild series. Peter Sumner, director and head of Contemporary Art in London presents Gerhard Richter's 'Weiß (White)', a highlight from the Contemporary Art Evening Sale on 16 October 2013. Catalogue Essay “ In the case of the abstractions, I get vague notions of pictures that are just asking to be painted. That’s how it starts, but nearly always the result is not at all what I imagined.” GERHARD RICHTER “ If I paint an abstract picture I neither know in advance what it is supposed to look like, norwhere I intend to go when I am painting, what could be done, to what end. For this reason thepainting is a quasi blind, desperate effort […] the urgent desire to build something meaningful and useful.” GERHARD RICHTER Devoting his illustrious career to the exploration and mastery of oil paint, Gerhard Richter’s legacy is one unparalleled in contemporary art. First conceiving of his series of Abstraktes Bild by 1976, the artist had already proven himself as an accomplished painter of real life subjects and historical subject matter. Since the inception of this body of work, his resignation to discover, rather than forge, has continued to yield limitless artistic rewards with his visually stunning Abstraktes Bild series. Richter’s artistic process is one of seeking rather than finding, building his canvas through sumptuous layers and gestures of paint. The present lot, Weiß, 1988, is an exemplary offering from this canonical series, in which each painting is “a model or metaphor about a possibility of social coexistence […] bring[ing] together the most disparate and mutually contradictory elements, alive and viable, in the greatest possible freedom.” (Gerhard Richter quoted inGerhard Richter, eds.M. Hetschel and H. Friedel, 1998, London, 1998, p. 11). Here, the artist achieves this freedom through a rigorous and meticulous technique involving the removal and reapplication of separate layers of paint. With the variance of each layer, chance delivers an unpredictable configuration of colours. The final result is nothing short of sublime; the painting, though undulating with colours below a quiet surface, achieves a holistic iridescence. It ebbs and flows through darker and lighter scales of grey, its chromatic lifeblood. In Weiß, translating to White, the relationship between light and darkness and the absence and presence of colours becomes symbiotic. Indeed, Richter’s oeuvre, which includes his early colour chart paintings as well as his later portraits, is characterized by bold organizations of colour. In this manner, his work equates to a complex intellectual study in both mathematics and optical experience. Distinguished in such work as Drei Grau übereinander (Three greys one upon the other), 1966/84, and other colour charts, these particular works− while responses to Pop art and Minimalism− also chronicle his career as a scientific artist, one who finds experimental uses for the conventional palette. It is in these paintings that we see Richter’s most vigorous rational pursuits and a crossroads of artistry and intellect. His abstract series, represented here in in W

Auction archive: Lot number 10
Auction:
Datum:
16 Oct 2013
Auction house:
Phillips
London
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