Gerhard Richter

Private Collection, Germany

Bielefeld, Kunsthalle; Manheim, Kunstveren, Gerhard Richter: Abstrakte Bilder 1976 - 1981, 1982
Herford, MARTa, Karl Kreber: A Selection, 2005-6

Jurgen Harten, Karl-Heinz Hering, Dietmar Elger et al., Gerhard Richter: Bilder/Paintings 1962-1985, Cologne 1986, p. 246, illustrated in colour
Angelika Thill et al., Gerhard Richter Catalogue Raisonné, 1962 - 1993, vol. III, Ostfildern-Ruit, 1993, p. 173, no. 474-2

Colour: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate, although the overall tonality is brighter and more vibrant in the original. Condition: This work is in very good condition. Extremely close inspection reveals a few minute and unobtrusive specks of media accretion towards the lower right corner tip and a few pinprick-sized fly spots in the lower centre and above the centre of the right hand edge. There are three tiny media accretions towards the top left corner and a very short and unobtrusive hairline crack towards the centre of the right edge. No restoration is apparent when examined under ultra-violet light.
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An astoundingly rich and boldly painted canvas, Abstraktes Bildwas executed in 1981, a pivotal period for Gerhard Richter which would lead to the artist’s most vibrant and expressive abstract paintings.  It is therefore a visually and conceptually important work within the canon of his paintings, uncovering his experimental workings alongside a considered and formative approach to paint application and colour.

The early 1980s saw a new international appreciation and admiration for the medium of painting, and Richter's participation in the exhibition 'New Spirit of Painting' at the Royal Academy in 1981, cemented him as key figure in contemporary painting at this time. Richter referred to his abstract paintings as communicating, 'the utmost visual immediacy...in order to depict nothing' (Gerhard Richter in: Exhibition Catalogue, Document 7, 1982, p. 100). This immediacy is aptly conveyed through Richter's use of heavily impastoed raspberry brushstrokes that dominate the central axis of the composition, unashamedly overpowering the visible blue and citrus workings beneath. The dramatic array of colours in the series to which the present work belongs, are symptomatic of a significant shift from the grey tonalities which dominated Richter's experiments of the late 1970s.

The characteristic blurring movements of later Abstraktes Bilds conveyed by the use of Richter’s signature squeegee are in this example, only just becoming evident, as he uses the technique intermittently in vivid yellow. This vibrant combination of brushstrokes and squeegee contrasts beautifully with the stillness of the darker fields in the background, offering the effect of a work changing before the viewer's eyes. As the paint merges and layers, so does the momentum gathering behind Richter's ideas, pushing forward to a greater abstraction.