Gerhard Richter

Marian Goodman Gallery, New York
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner in 1986

Munich, Galerie Fred Jahn; Mannheim, Mannheimer Kunstverein; Bielefeld, Kunsthalle Bielefeld, Gerhard Richter: Abstract Paintings 1976-1981, 1982

 

Exhibition Catalogue, Düsseldorf, Stadtische Kunsthalle; Berlin, Nationalgalerie Berlin- Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz; Bern, Kunsthalle Bern; Wien, Museum Moderner Kunst, Gerhard Richter Paintings 1962-1985, 1986, p. 245, no. 472-3, illustrated in colour
Angelika Thill et al., Gerhard Richter Catalogue Raisonné 1962-1993, Vol. III, Ostfildern-Ruit 1993, n.p., no. 472-3, illustrated in colour

Colour: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate, although the overall tonality is brighter in the original, with more prominent purple undertones throughout. The illustration fails to fully convey the rich painterly surface apparent in the original. Condition: This work is in very good condition. Upon extremely close inspection, there is a minute crack to the top layer of paint towards the top left hand corner. No restoration is apparent when examined under ultra-violet light.
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Abstraktes Bild, made on the cusp of Gerhard Richter's transition into his most vibrant and expressive abstract paintings, is a visually and conceptually important work in the canon of abstract painting. The early 1980s saw a new international appreciation and admiration for the medium of painting, and Richter's participation in an exhibition 'New Spirit of Painting' at the Royal Academy in 1981, cemented him as key figure in contemporary painting at this time. The artist referred to his abstract paintings as communicating, 'the utmost visual immediacy...in order to depict nothing' (Gerhard Richter in: Exhibition Catalogue, Documenta 7, 1982, p. 100). This immediacy is aptly conveyed in Richter's use of whip-like marks streaking across the deep vermillion of the canvas, expressing emotion and sensitivity in the very surface of the paint. The bold use of primary colours in the series to which the present work belongs are symptomatic of a dramatic shift from the grey tonalities which dominated Richter's experiments of the late1970s.

 

Typical of this series of paintings of the early 1980s, the present work is executed on an intimate scale. The composition loosely evokes landscape references through the format of the canvas, and the peak-like marks across its surface, inviting a more personal engagement with the viewer.  The characteristic blurring and dragging movements of later Abstraktes, conveyed by the use of a squeegee, are only just becoming evident, as he uses the technique sparingly along the bottom of the canvas. This light, dappled haze of yellow that encroaches on the darker fields gives the effect of a work changing before the viewer's eyes. As the paint blurs and melds into a veil-like surface, so does the momentum gathering behind Richter's ideas, pushing forward to a greater abstraction.