Gerhard Richter Vesuv (Vesuvius) 407 1976 Oil on wooden panel. 26 x 37 3/8 in. (66 x 95 cm). Signed, numbered and dated “Richter, 1976 Nr. 407” on the reverse.
Provenance Galerie Rolf Preisig, Basel; Private collection, Switzerland; Schönewald Fine Arts, Xanten; Anthony d’Offay Gallery, London; Private Collection; Galerie Gmurzynska, Zug Exhibited Paris, centre national d’art et de culture Georges Pompidou, Musée national d’art moderne, Gerhard Richter February 1 – March 21, 1977; Aarau, Aargauer Kunsthaus und Kunsthalle Krems, Die Schwerkraft 1774-1997, 1997; Sprengel Museum Hannover, Gerhard Richter Landscapes, October 4, 1998- January 3, 1999 Literature B.H.D. Buchloh and G. Richter, eds., Gerhard Richter Paris, 1977, p. 7(illustrated); U. Loock, and D. Zacharopoulos, Gerhard Richter Munich, 1985, p. 44(illustrated); D. Elger, J. Harten, and Städische Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Gerhard Richter Bilder (Paintings) 1962-1985, Cologne, 1986, p. 200 (illustrated); B.H.D. Buchloch, P. Gidal,B. Pelzer and A. Thill, eds., Gerhard Richter Werkübersicht (Catalogue Raisonné), Volume III,Bonn, 1993, no. 407 (illustrated); A. Bürgi, W. Denk, S. Kunz, S. Oettermann, M. Schaub,and B. Wismer, Die Schwerkraft der Berge. 1774-1997 (Sondereinband), Aarau, 1997, p. 197(illustrated); D. Elger and G. Richter, eds., Gerhard Richter Landschaften (Landscapes),Ostfildern-Ruit, 1998, p. 68 (illustrated); D. Schuster, “Impressionem auf Auktionen- oderdie Werke sind nicht genug”, Artinvestor, no. 2, 2003, p. 33 (illustrated) Catalogue Essay In the history of Gerhard Richter’s painterly body of work, the artist hasfocused on the very tenets that underlie the twentieth century’s critical artmovements. First and foremost a painter, Richter has been a prolific literaryartist as well, ascribing his own art to theoretical writings that continuehelping us define his approaches within the scope of Postmodern art, andhis unique position within it.Throughout Richter’s tenure, landscapes occupy a significant positionwithin his career; no other genre has fascinated him to the same extent,nor occupied his devotion with such intensity.While endeavoring throughmany artistic styles in a quasi epistemological quest, the artist has alwaysreturned to the very basic formality of landscape painting, never limiting itto a transitional or exploratory ‘period’ of his career. Vesuv, from 1976,epitomizes Richter’s ongoing investigation with the subject of distillingimagery from photography, a medium that in his mind encompasses thevery essence of an image with its singular, absolute, capacity to capture theworld. As described by the artist in the 1960’s prior to painting Vesuv, “Thephotograph is the most perfect picture. It does not change; it is absolute,and therefore autonomous, unconditional, devoid of style. Both in its way ofinforming, and in what it informs of, it is my source,” (G. Richter, The DailyPractice of Painting, Writing and Interviews 1962-1993, London, 1995, p. 31).Vesuv’s composition startles us with a pristine sense of reality; theatmospheric haze employed by Richter has less to do with conjuring asense of perspective than with expressing a sublime quality to the overalllook and feel of the picture.To be sure, every element within the painting isexquisitely rendered and evocative of a timelessness, even the time of dayeclipses confirmation—this scene could just as equally take place at duskor dawn, one thousand years ago or yesterday. While elements of landscape painting appeared initially in Richter’s work early on in his career in 1963, the artist began his independent series of landscapes in 1968 after his first vacation, an excursion that landed him besotted with the terrain of Corsica. Eventually, in 1976, the photographs he took from this trip to MountVesuvius in Southern Italy were painted with exquisite detail and slight transfigurations, and form a series of seven paintings devoted to the subject, of which the present lot is exemplary. While Richter’s Vesuvius paintings present a veritable catalogue of the natural world—land and sea, clouds and sky, plains and mountain, in both their compositional formats
Gerhard Richter Vesuv (Vesuvius) 407 1976 Oil on wooden panel. 26 x 37 3/8 in. (66 x 95 cm). Signed, numbered and dated “Richter, 1976 Nr. 407” on the reverse.
Provenance Galerie Rolf Preisig, Basel; Private collection, Switzerland; Schönewald Fine Arts, Xanten; Anthony d’Offay Gallery, London; Private Collection; Galerie Gmurzynska, Zug Exhibited Paris, centre national d’art et de culture Georges Pompidou, Musée national d’art moderne, Gerhard Richter February 1 – March 21, 1977; Aarau, Aargauer Kunsthaus und Kunsthalle Krems, Die Schwerkraft 1774-1997, 1997; Sprengel Museum Hannover, Gerhard Richter Landscapes, October 4, 1998- January 3, 1999 Literature B.H.D. Buchloh and G. Richter, eds., Gerhard Richter Paris, 1977, p. 7(illustrated); U. Loock, and D. Zacharopoulos, Gerhard Richter Munich, 1985, p. 44(illustrated); D. Elger, J. Harten, and Städische Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Gerhard Richter Bilder (Paintings) 1962-1985, Cologne, 1986, p. 200 (illustrated); B.H.D. Buchloch, P. Gidal,B. Pelzer and A. Thill, eds., Gerhard Richter Werkübersicht (Catalogue Raisonné), Volume III,Bonn, 1993, no. 407 (illustrated); A. Bürgi, W. Denk, S. Kunz, S. Oettermann, M. Schaub,and B. Wismer, Die Schwerkraft der Berge. 1774-1997 (Sondereinband), Aarau, 1997, p. 197(illustrated); D. Elger and G. Richter, eds., Gerhard Richter Landschaften (Landscapes),Ostfildern-Ruit, 1998, p. 68 (illustrated); D. Schuster, “Impressionem auf Auktionen- oderdie Werke sind nicht genug”, Artinvestor, no. 2, 2003, p. 33 (illustrated) Catalogue Essay In the history of Gerhard Richter’s painterly body of work, the artist hasfocused on the very tenets that underlie the twentieth century’s critical artmovements. First and foremost a painter, Richter has been a prolific literaryartist as well, ascribing his own art to theoretical writings that continuehelping us define his approaches within the scope of Postmodern art, andhis unique position within it.Throughout Richter’s tenure, landscapes occupy a significant positionwithin his career; no other genre has fascinated him to the same extent,nor occupied his devotion with such intensity.While endeavoring throughmany artistic styles in a quasi epistemological quest, the artist has alwaysreturned to the very basic formality of landscape painting, never limiting itto a transitional or exploratory ‘period’ of his career. Vesuv, from 1976,epitomizes Richter’s ongoing investigation with the subject of distillingimagery from photography, a medium that in his mind encompasses thevery essence of an image with its singular, absolute, capacity to capture theworld. As described by the artist in the 1960’s prior to painting Vesuv, “Thephotograph is the most perfect picture. It does not change; it is absolute,and therefore autonomous, unconditional, devoid of style. Both in its way ofinforming, and in what it informs of, it is my source,” (G. Richter, The DailyPractice of Painting, Writing and Interviews 1962-1993, London, 1995, p. 31).Vesuv’s composition startles us with a pristine sense of reality; theatmospheric haze employed by Richter has less to do with conjuring asense of perspective than with expressing a sublime quality to the overalllook and feel of the picture.To be sure, every element within the painting isexquisitely rendered and evocative of a timelessness, even the time of dayeclipses confirmation—this scene could just as equally take place at duskor dawn, one thousand years ago or yesterday. While elements of landscape painting appeared initially in Richter’s work early on in his career in 1963, the artist began his independent series of landscapes in 1968 after his first vacation, an excursion that landed him besotted with the terrain of Corsica. Eventually, in 1976, the photographs he took from this trip to MountVesuvius in Southern Italy were painted with exquisite detail and slight transfigurations, and form a series of seven paintings devoted to the subject, of which the present lot is exemplary. While Richter’s Vesuvius paintings present a veritable catalogue of the natural world—land and sea, clouds and sky, plains and mountain, in both their compositional formats
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