Gerhard Richter

Achenbach Art Consulting, Düsseldorf
Private Collection, Cologne
Sale: Lempertz, Cologne, Zeitgenössische Kunst, 3 December 1994, Lot 814
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner

Frankfurt, Galerie Achenbach, Gerhard Richter, 1991
Kassel, Museum Friedericianum, Shapes and Positions, 1993
Klosterneuburg, Essl Museum, The First View, 1999-2000, p. 159, illustrated in colour
Klosterneuburg, Essl Museum; Ljubljana, Moderna Galerija, (un)gemalt, 2002, p. 168, illustrated in colour
Mexico City, Museo de Arte Moderno; Monterrey, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Monterrey, Colección Essl. Arte Contemporáneo Austríaco y Pintura de la Posguerra, 2005, p. 53, illustrated in colour
Klosterneuburg, Essl Museum, Baselitz bis Lassnig. Meisterhafte Bilder, 2008, p. 162-63, illustrated in colour
Klosterneuburg, Essl Museum, Silence. Ein Raum der stillen Begegnung mit Kunst, 2012

Angelika Thill et. al., Gerhard Richter Catalogue Raisonné 1962-1993, Vol. III, Ostfildern-Ruit, 1993, no. 742-1, illustrated in colour

Colour: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate, although the tonality of the red tends more towards orange in the original. Condition: This work is in very good condition. There are two minute losses at each of the left corner tips. Close inspection reveals a very small loss to thick area of impasto at the centre towards the left edge. No restoration is apparent under ultraviolet light.
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Abstraktes Bild (742-1) is an astounding example of Gerhard Richter’s iconic Abstrakte Bilder, a series that can arguably be considered one of the most significant groups of works produced by any painter active during the past few decades. 1991 is considered to be a year of prime importance within the history of the Abstrakte Bilder series: by the time Abstraktes Bild was painted, the heterogeneous, variegated surfaces of the 1980s works had given way to paintings that were more unified and chromatically coherent in form, in which the final drag of the squeegee served to level and unite all the previous accretions and layers of paint. Superbly exhibiting the artist’s astonishing command of medium and technique whilst brilliantly encapsulating the crucial concerns and ideals of Richter’s creative praxis, Abstraktes Bild (742-1)is undoubtedly one of the most visually striking and impressive paintings of the entire series. Flaming bursts of red and orange dominate the palette, contrasting magnificently with the dusky greens and blues that emerge from the canvas ground. Layers of brighter green can be glimpsed at the base of the composition, introducing the verdant tones of spring into the paint layers. This scintillating combination of colours, kaleidoscopic in its intensity, imbues the work with a visceral energy, seeming to pulsate with raw excitement and endless possibilities.

The method of painting the grandly-scaled Abstrakte Bilder reveals Richter’s absolute mastery of his chosen medium. The process is carefully considered and painstaking, beginning with the application of various layers of ground colour that serve as a support. Washes of paint are then applied and manipulated by means of brush, palette knife or squeegee to achieve the remarkable textural melee that imbues Abstraktes Bild (742-1) with a sense of sculptural power. Richter experiences the unpredictability of the squeegee as an intense liberation: “It is a good technique for switching off thinking… Consciously I can’t calculate the result. But subconsciously, I can sense it. This is a nice ‘between’ state” (the artist cited in: Dietmar Elger, Gerhard Richter, A Life in Painting, Chicago 2009, p. 251). Final layers of pigment are then applied to create the definitive surface, resulting in a composition of stunning complexity and profound depth. Abstraktes Bild (742-1) is a rarity within Richter’s oeuvre due to the use of wood instead of canvas as a support, endowing the surface with a ruggedly gestural texture. Only three other abstract works from 1991 were painted on wood (742-2, 742-3 and 742-4), all of which form part of the same series of which Abstraktes Bild (742-1) is the primary example; and Abstraktes Bild (742-4) currently resides prominently in the collection of the Miami Art Museum. Sharing predominately orange and red chromatic tones, the dimensions of all four paintings within the series refuse to conform to conventional quadratics at 145 by 150cm., resulting in a minute, yet pivotal, asymmetry that provides a thrilling visual surprise when acknowledged.

Richter produced the precursors to his Abstrakte Bilder in the late 1970s in line with ceaseless quest to discover entirely innovative forms of painterly expression. The early 1970s had been a time of intensive artistic experimentation for Richter, leading to the creation of the vibrant Colour Charts, a group of In-Paintings using the primary colours and the powerful series of Grey Paintings.  By the mid-1970s Richter felt he had pursued the possibilities of the Grey Paintings to their limit and was seeking a complete change in direction, prompting a series of small abstract sketches: “After those strictly monochromatic or nonchromatic paintings it was rather difficult just to keep going. Even if such a thing had been possible, I had no desire to produce variations on that theme. So I set out in the totally opposite direction. On small canvases I put random, illogical colours and forms - mostly with long pauses in between, which made sure that these paintings - if you can call them that - became more and more heterogeneous… An exciting business, at all events, as if [I had opened a new door for myself]” (the artist cited in: Ibid., p. 231). Inspired by this discovery, Richter began photographing specific details of the sketches to use as the basis for larger abstract paintings, re-creating the various brushstrokes on a grand scale. It was in 1981 that Richter made the breakthrough that enabled him to create his first monumental Abstrakte Bilder, many of which were shown for the first time in a major exhibition at the Kunsthalle Bielefeld in 1982. Abstrakte Bilder have since come to dominate Richter’s oeuvre, and are internationally recognised as a series of major import within late Twentieth and early Twenty-First Century painting.

Richter’s Abstrakte Bilder stand at the apex of the defining Twentieth Century investigations into the potential of true non-objectivity. Abstraktes Bild (742-1) is an ultimate expression of pure painting. Within the seething maelstrom of colour and textural complexity that forms this masterful composition the viewer can glimpse the astonishing watershed in a quest for abstraction pursued throughout the Twentieth Century. The complex paradoxes and ambiguities that lead to the creation of the Abstrakte Bilder has been outlined by Roald Nasgaard: “The character of the Abstract Paintings is not their resolution but the dispersal of their elements. Their coexisting contradictory expressions and moods, their opposition of promises and denials. They are complex visual events, suspended in interrogation, and fictive models for that reality which escapes direct address, eludes description and conceptualization, but resides inarticulate in our experience” (Roald Nasgaard in: Exhibition Catalogue, Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art, Gerhard Richter: Paintings, 1988, p. 110). Ultimately, in its joyful celebration of colour and textural surface, Abstraktes Bild (742-1) is a true masterpiece of Richter’s later work: a stunning foray into technique whose result exemplifies the extraordinary reach of the artist’s creative vision.