Gerhard Richter Abstraktes Bild 610-1 (Abstract Painting 610-1) 1986 Oil on canvas. 78 7/8 x 78 7/8 in. (200.3 x 200.3 cm). Signed, dated, and numbered “Richter 1986, 610 – 1” on the reverse.
Provenance Galerie Buchmann, Basel; Private collection, Switzerland Literature Gerhard Richter Werkübersicht/Catalogue Raisonné 1962-1993, Ostfildern-Ruit, 1993, no 610-1, p. 180 (illustrated) Catalogue Essay "If I look at it that way, the whole thing starts to seem quite natural again- or rather Nature-like, alive." (Gerhard Richter artist’s statement, taken from M. Hetschel and H. Friedel, eds., Gerhard Richter 1998, London, 1998) In the history of Gerhard Richter’s painterly career, the artist has focused on the very tenets that underlie the critical art movements of the twentieth century. First and foremost a painter, Richter has and continues to be a prolific literary artist as well, ascribing his own art to his profusely published theoretical writings and publications that help us to define his unique approaches within the scope of postmodernist art.The present lot, Abstraktes Bild 610-1 painted in 1986, illuminates in precise, eloquent manners the very core of Richter’s profession: that is in its examination of color and form the artist strives towards answering the fundamental phenomena of painting. Ever the consummate self-critic, Richter is aware at all times that on each occasion he engages his viewer he creates a new paradigm to view his artwork. His career, profuse and abounding in diverse styles and methodologies, has traversed literally every topoi of both classical and modern art historical canons.The artist works in these various modes with renewed vigor each time, so that on every juncture a new set of laws exists. Indeed, contemplating the artist’s diverse reflections and nuanced changes over his career causes much delight for an eager and educated viewer, for not only does Richter allow for his own interpretation to carry over to the viewer, he encourages, even demands, a new interpretation on every turn and deft handling of the brush. While ascribing to the distinct tenets of the artistic movement he references, Richter deliberates between fully ascribing to merely alluding, ultimately basing his own work off the parameters these styles set and not allowing their whole influence to define his artwork. In this way, the artist has remained uniquely visionary: adapting previous modicums to his own perfection. He exercises complete control and discretion over their influence on his own art. In his own words: “I do not pursue any particular intentions, system, or direction. I do not have a programme, a style, a course to follow. I have brought not being interested in specialist problems, working themes, in variations toward mastery. I shy away from all restrictions, I do not know what I want, I am I inconsistent, indifferent, passive; I like things that are indeterminate and boundless, and I like persistent uncertainty. Other qualities promote achievement, acquisition, success, but they are as superseded as ideologies, views, concepts and names for things. Now that we do not have priests and philosophers any more, artists are the most important people in the world.That is the only thing that interests me,” (Gerhard Richter artist statement from 1966, taken from N. Serota, ed., Gerhard Richter London, 1992, p. 109). Richter, while pursuing abstract painting from the very beginning of his career, first gave the title of Abstract Painting to his work in 1976, marking the beginning of his famous series of which the present lot is exemplary. Conspicuously aware of the possibilities lying within this form of painterly expression, Richter insists in an interview at the time the present lot was painted that, “They [Abstract Paintings] are models… or metaphors… pictures that are about a possibility of social coexistence. Looked at in this way, all that I am trying to do in each picture is to bring together the most disparate and mutually contradictory elements, alive and viable, in the greatest possible freedom,” (M. Hetschel and H. Friedel, eds., Gerhard Richter 1998, London, 1998, p. 11). So with this renewed prop
Gerhard Richter Abstraktes Bild 610-1 (Abstract Painting 610-1) 1986 Oil on canvas. 78 7/8 x 78 7/8 in. (200.3 x 200.3 cm). Signed, dated, and numbered “Richter 1986, 610 – 1” on the reverse.
Provenance Galerie Buchmann, Basel; Private collection, Switzerland Literature Gerhard Richter Werkübersicht/Catalogue Raisonné 1962-1993, Ostfildern-Ruit, 1993, no 610-1, p. 180 (illustrated) Catalogue Essay "If I look at it that way, the whole thing starts to seem quite natural again- or rather Nature-like, alive." (Gerhard Richter artist’s statement, taken from M. Hetschel and H. Friedel, eds., Gerhard Richter 1998, London, 1998) In the history of Gerhard Richter’s painterly career, the artist has focused on the very tenets that underlie the critical art movements of the twentieth century. First and foremost a painter, Richter has and continues to be a prolific literary artist as well, ascribing his own art to his profusely published theoretical writings and publications that help us to define his unique approaches within the scope of postmodernist art.The present lot, Abstraktes Bild 610-1 painted in 1986, illuminates in precise, eloquent manners the very core of Richter’s profession: that is in its examination of color and form the artist strives towards answering the fundamental phenomena of painting. Ever the consummate self-critic, Richter is aware at all times that on each occasion he engages his viewer he creates a new paradigm to view his artwork. His career, profuse and abounding in diverse styles and methodologies, has traversed literally every topoi of both classical and modern art historical canons.The artist works in these various modes with renewed vigor each time, so that on every juncture a new set of laws exists. Indeed, contemplating the artist’s diverse reflections and nuanced changes over his career causes much delight for an eager and educated viewer, for not only does Richter allow for his own interpretation to carry over to the viewer, he encourages, even demands, a new interpretation on every turn and deft handling of the brush. While ascribing to the distinct tenets of the artistic movement he references, Richter deliberates between fully ascribing to merely alluding, ultimately basing his own work off the parameters these styles set and not allowing their whole influence to define his artwork. In this way, the artist has remained uniquely visionary: adapting previous modicums to his own perfection. He exercises complete control and discretion over their influence on his own art. In his own words: “I do not pursue any particular intentions, system, or direction. I do not have a programme, a style, a course to follow. I have brought not being interested in specialist problems, working themes, in variations toward mastery. I shy away from all restrictions, I do not know what I want, I am I inconsistent, indifferent, passive; I like things that are indeterminate and boundless, and I like persistent uncertainty. Other qualities promote achievement, acquisition, success, but they are as superseded as ideologies, views, concepts and names for things. Now that we do not have priests and philosophers any more, artists are the most important people in the world.That is the only thing that interests me,” (Gerhard Richter artist statement from 1966, taken from N. Serota, ed., Gerhard Richter London, 1992, p. 109). Richter, while pursuing abstract painting from the very beginning of his career, first gave the title of Abstract Painting to his work in 1976, marking the beginning of his famous series of which the present lot is exemplary. Conspicuously aware of the possibilities lying within this form of painterly expression, Richter insists in an interview at the time the present lot was painted that, “They [Abstract Paintings] are models… or metaphors… pictures that are about a possibility of social coexistence. Looked at in this way, all that I am trying to do in each picture is to bring together the most disparate and mutually contradictory elements, alive and viable, in the greatest possible freedom,” (M. Hetschel and H. Friedel, eds., Gerhard Richter 1998, London, 1998, p. 11). So with this renewed prop
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