Gerhard Richter and Blinky Palermo

Galerie Konrad Fischer, Düsseldorf
Dr. Maria Siemer, Bochum
Galerie Schönewald und Beuse, Krefeld
Anthony d'Offay Gallery, London
Acquired by the present owner from the above in April 1999

Cologne, Heiner Friedrich Gallery, Gerhard Richter und Blinky Palermo, March - April 1972
Krefeld, Kaiser Wilhelm Museum, 1985 (long term loan)

Exh. Cat., Venice, German Pavilion, XXXVI Biennale Internazionale dell'Arte, Gerhard Richter, 1972, cat. no. 303, p. 60, illustrated and cat. 304, p. 61, illustrated
Bernhard Kerber, Art International, no. 6/7, 1972, p. 144 (text)
Klaus Honnef, Gerhard Richter, Reckinghausen, 1976, p. 39, illustrated in color
Jürgen Harten, Gerhard Richter: Bilder/Paintings 1962-1985, Cologne, 1986, p. 379 (text), cat. nos. 303 and 304, p. 134, illustrated
Angelika Thill, et. al., Gerhard Richter: A Catalogue Raisonné 1962-1993, vol. III, Ostfildern-Ruit, 1993, cat. nos. 303 and 304, illustrated in color
Thordis Moeller, Palermo. Bilder und Objekte. Werkverzeichnis, vol. 1, Bonn, 1995, cat. no. 151, illustrated in color
Dietmar Elger, Gerhard Richter. Maler, Cologne, 2002, p. 227 (text)
Gerhard Richter, "To the people…" Sprechen über Blinky Palermo, Cologne, 2003, p. 77 (text)
Christine Mehring, Blinky Palermo. Abstraction of an Era, New Haven and London, 2008, p. 210 and p. 211, illustrated in color
Christine Mehring, "Glühbirnen und Monochrome: Die Wahlverwandschaften von Richter und Palermo," Blinky Palermo. To the People of New York City, Düsseldorf and New York, 2009, pp. 73-4 and p. 72, illustrated
Christine Mehring, Jeanne Anne Nugent, and Jon L. Seydl, eds., Gerhard Richter. Early Work 1951-1972, Los Angeles, 2010, pp. 116-118 and p. 118, illustrated
Exh. Cat., New York, Dia Art Foundation (and travelling). Blinky Palermo: Retrospective 1964-1977, 2010-2011, p. 21, illustrated in color (installation in Richter's studio)

This work is in excellent condition. The left-most canvas has a very thin 4" line of wear to the extreme overturn upper left edge and three extremely faint and minor 1½ by 1" areas of hairline cracking at 34, 36, and 38" from the top, and 24, 23, and 24" from the right, which are only visible in raking light. The right-most canvas has a ¾ by 1" area of minute hairline cracks 3" from top and 22" from right, which are only visible in raking light. The canvases are not framed.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

The dazzling result of an association between two of the greatest artistic minds of the Twentieth Century, Untitled is undoubtedly the most significant surviving work of the brief collaboration that existed between Gerhard Richter and Blinky Palermo. Created in 1971, when both artists were at a crucial stage within their creative development, Untitled enabled both Richter and Palermo to pursue intriguing new stylistic paths and experiment with innovative techniques. The outcome is a magnificent work that acts as a fascinating expression of pure painterly talent, in which the two diptychs combine to create an installation of immense power and commanding authority. The left hand panel of each diptych is a stunning exemplar of Richter’s photo-realist style of painting: seemingly hovering on the verge of total abstraction, closer inspection reveals that the image is in fact a vastly magnified representation of a light-bulb, depicted with astonishing technical virtuosity through the artist’s total mastery of the brush. Ghostly filaments can be discerned, whilst pools of light appear to shimmer as haloes against a darker background. In contrast Palermo’s panels are a model of classical purity, an exercise in unalloyed abstraction untainted by any suggestion of form or pattern. Yet, despite this seeming opposition of styles, the two halves of both diptychs act as a perfect foil for each other, the warm, peachy tones of the paint surface – mischievously reminiscent of naked skin – ideally supporting each segment. Lynne Cooke argues for the symbolic importance of Palermo’s decision to co-ordinate color with Richter: “Far from arbitrary, Palermo’s choice of color speaks to the function it serves here: it creates a skin, or protective membrane, over the canvas support.” (Lynne Cooke, ‘Palermo’s Porosity,’ in Exh. Cat., New York, Dia Art Foundation (and travelling), Blinky Palermo Retrospective 1964-1977, 2010, p. 21) 

Although Richter and Palermo had achieved widespread recognition and acclaim by 1971, both were consistently seeking new forms of artistic expression and focusing on the potential for further developments within painting during this period. Richter in particular had been experimenting with an astonishingly diverse range of styles during the late 1960s alongside his photo-realist works, moving from the vivid hues of the Farben to the monochromatic splendor of the Grau paintings in an attempt to transcend objectivity in art and move towards a more definitive ideal of abstraction. Collaboration with Palermo on Untitled and other joint creations seemed to inspire Richter with an added impetus towards non-objectivity, arguably anticipating the remarkable Abstraktes Bilder produced during the most recent part of the artist’s career. Though younger than Richter, Palermo had been working within an abstract idiom since his student days under the tutelage of the venerable Joseph Beuys at the Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf, rapidly moving beyond the perceived limitations of paint on canvas to create his series of Stoffbilder - visually arresting works made from symmetrical portions of colored fabric. The association with the younger artist seemed to galvanize Richter in his quest for new challenges within painting, sparking a creative and personal relationship that was of profound importance for both. Richter later recalled the elements that bound the two artists together despite seemingly disparate stylistic beginnings: “Because we were so different, we didn’t compete with each other. I always appreciated the way he could create something that seemed so silent. That was all foreign to me… We could really just speak about painting. The main thing was about the surface of colour or the proportion of colour.” (cited in Dietmar Elger, Gerhard Richter, A Life in Painting, Chicago, 2009, p. 182) Ultimately, Untitled stands as an extraordinary record of an artistic collaboration of pure brilliance: a work of immense rarity and extraordinary importance within the oeuvres of both Richter and Palermo that deserves to be recognized as a tour-de-force of sheer technical virtuosity and imaginative power.