Gerhard Richter

Hans-Joachim Gross, Stuttgart (acquired directly from the artist)
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner in 1975

Friedrichshafen, Kunstverein, Gerhard Richter. Malerei aus drei Jahrzehnten, 2001, p. 32, illustrated in colour 

Jürgen Harten, Gerhard Richter: Paintings 1962-1985, Cologne 1986, p. 149, incorrectly numbered 326-12 and incorrectly illustrated with incorrect dimensions
Angelika Thill et al., Gerhard Richter Catalogue Raisonné: 1962-1993, Vol. III, Ostfildern Ruit,1993, incorrectly numbered 326-12 and incorrectly illustrated with incorrect dimensions

Colour: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate. Condition: This work is in very good condition. No restoration is apparent when examined under ultra-violet light.
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Gerhard Richter’s Vermalung is a stunning example from one of the artist’s most intriguing series, Inpaintings. Painted in 1972, at a time when Richter was attempting to find alternative methods of expressing his creative ideals outside the photo-realist style which had dominated the early part of his career, Vermalung displays the artist’s extraordinary mastery of the brush. Composed of the primary colours – red, blue and yellow – the surface of Vermalung abounds with magnificently swirling brushstrokes, causing the canvas to appear almost three-dimensional in its tactility. Remarkable colour variants emerge due to the entwining of the primaries alongside unique forms and shapes. Richter would commence by placing circular areas of different coloured paints on the canvas, then proceeding to move the brush in broad sweeps between the colours, creating layer upon layer of rich texture. The artist later recalled the creation of his paintings in this style: ‘The shades and forms emerge through the constant blending of brushstrokes; they create an illusionistic space, without any need for me to invent forms or signs.’ (Gerhard Richter cited in: Dietmar Elger, Gerhard Richter, A Life in Painting, University of Chicago Press, 2009, p. 211).  Vermalung is a powerful distillation of Richter’s themes and concerns of the early 1970s; a remarkable exercise in the tangible potential of a paint surface that appears to rise magnificently above the confines of the two-dimensional canvas.