Germany
Except otherwise stated, all results include the premium.
See also : Top 10 Germany II Richter Richter < 1983 US painting < 1940 Cars Cars II Cars 1950s Cars 1955 Mercedes-Benz Music and dance Animals Bird
Chronology : 1850-1859 20th century 1913 1914 1920-1929 1938 1950-1959 1955 1968 1986 1990-1999 1993 1994
See also : Top 10 Germany II Richter Richter < 1983 US painting < 1940 Cars Cars II Cars 1950s Cars 1955 Mercedes-Benz Music and dance Animals Bird
Chronology : 1850-1859 20th century 1913 1914 1920-1929 1938 1950-1959 1955 1968 1986 1990-1999 1993 1994
1851 Washington crossing the Delaware by Leutze
2022 SOLD for $ 45M by Christie's
On Christmas night, 1776 the surprise crossing of the half frozen Delaware river by General Washington changed the course of the Revolutionary War hampered by a previous series of defeats.
That epic moment was painted by the German-born Emanuel Leutze in the wake of the 1848 European events.
The tall General is straight standing at the bow with a foot on the edge, looking ahead with a stiff determination. The US flag in its 1777 Stars and Stripes version is floating in the wind behind the hero. The boat is populated by various officers and troops including a rowing Black man, a Scot and a rowing woman, highlighting the proud Washington as the father of the US nation as a whole.
Three paintings were executed by Leutze with his assistant Eastman Johnson. Made in 1850, the original version was destroyed in a World War II bombing. The second full scale 3.80 x 6.50 m canvas is housed by the Met Museum.
Prepared in 1851 in parallel with the Met example, the third piece on a reduced scale was commissioned by the Paris art editors Goupil and Vibert for an engraving. It was on loan at the White House from 1979 to 2014. This oil on canvas 102 x 173 cm was sold for $ 45M from a lower estimate of $ 15M by Christie's on May 12, 2022, lot 30C.
A pastiche painted by Robert Colescott in 1975 replacing the general by an African American scientist and the troops by a gang of joyful Negroes was sold for $ 15.3M by Sotheby's in 2021. Another pastiche painted in 2018 by Jon McNaughton features President Trump leading his team by night with an oil lamp.
That epic moment was painted by the German-born Emanuel Leutze in the wake of the 1848 European events.
The tall General is straight standing at the bow with a foot on the edge, looking ahead with a stiff determination. The US flag in its 1777 Stars and Stripes version is floating in the wind behind the hero. The boat is populated by various officers and troops including a rowing Black man, a Scot and a rowing woman, highlighting the proud Washington as the father of the US nation as a whole.
Three paintings were executed by Leutze with his assistant Eastman Johnson. Made in 1850, the original version was destroyed in a World War II bombing. The second full scale 3.80 x 6.50 m canvas is housed by the Met Museum.
Prepared in 1851 in parallel with the Met example, the third piece on a reduced scale was commissioned by the Paris art editors Goupil and Vibert for an engraving. It was on loan at the White House from 1979 to 2014. This oil on canvas 102 x 173 cm was sold for $ 45M from a lower estimate of $ 15M by Christie's on May 12, 2022, lot 30C.
A pastiche painted by Robert Colescott in 1975 replacing the general by an African American scientist and the troops by a gang of joyful Negroes was sold for $ 15.3M by Sotheby's in 2021. Another pastiche painted in 2018 by Jon McNaughton features President Trump leading his team by night with an oil lamp.
#AuctionUpdate Emmanuel Leutze’s ‘Washington Crossing the Delaware’ sets an auction record for the artist; price realized $45 million pic.twitter.com/waEDUwjlaT
— Christie's (@ChristiesInc) May 13, 2022
1913 Die Füchse by Franz Marc
2022 SOLD for £ 43M by Christie's
Franz Marc rejects the modern life which is dominated by the machine. He seeks truth in Nature. His work displays a great diversity of animals, whose symbiosis with nature is a support for a harmony of forms. He uses Fauvist colors, with a symbolist code of his invention : blue for the male and yellow for the female when they are peaceful, and red to express an antithesis, for example revolt.
As a co-founder of Der Blaue Reiter, Franz Marc was immediately influenced by Boccioni's Futurism and Delaunay"s Orphisme. His featured animals went to be displayed in an abstract surrounding of fragmented colors while keeping an expressive posture of their own. By that way he pursued a personal style of painting still in quest of a meaningful interpretation of the speed and force of the raw nature.
Painted in 1913, Die Füchse features two peacefully intertwined foxes of which one of them is dominant. Against the bad repute of the clever animal, the artist had an obvious sympathy for their species. Their robe is realistically dark orange with a white jaw, not reaching the dark red of the naughty beasts in the usual color code of the artist.
This oil on canvas 88 x 66 cm was sold in 1939 by its owner who was fleeing the Nazi Germany. Recently restituted to his heirs by a museum in Düsseldorf, it was sold for £ 43M from an estimate in the region of £ 35M by Christie's on March 1, 2022, lot 34. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
As a co-founder of Der Blaue Reiter, Franz Marc was immediately influenced by Boccioni's Futurism and Delaunay"s Orphisme. His featured animals went to be displayed in an abstract surrounding of fragmented colors while keeping an expressive posture of their own. By that way he pursued a personal style of painting still in quest of a meaningful interpretation of the speed and force of the raw nature.
Painted in 1913, Die Füchse features two peacefully intertwined foxes of which one of them is dominant. Against the bad repute of the clever animal, the artist had an obvious sympathy for their species. Their robe is realistically dark orange with a white jaw, not reaching the dark red of the naughty beasts in the usual color code of the artist.
This oil on canvas 88 x 66 cm was sold in 1939 by its owner who was fleeing the Nazi Germany. Recently restituted to his heirs by a museum in Düsseldorf, it was sold for £ 43M from an estimate in the region of £ 35M by Christie's on March 1, 2022, lot 34. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
1913-1914 Berliner Strassenszene by Kirchner
2006 SOLD for $ 38 M by Christie's
The Die Brücke movement was founded in Dresden in 1905 by four students who wanted to define a modern life based on freedom. From 1911 the lights, the pleasures and the opportunities of Berlin attract them like butterflies. The failure is total. The group explodes in January 1913.
Kirchner has to face the facts. Life in Berlin is not communal. Each individual is isolated in the crowd. At that time prostitutes were the queens of the Berlin sidewalk. They are recognizable by customers from odd signs which are not sufficient to make them intercepted by the police of morals : the high feather on the hat, the tight dresses in too bright colors.
The Strassenszene series, begun at the end of 1913 and interrupted by the war, marks Kirchner's attempt to interpret this city life which he did not want. An oil on canvas 122 x 91 cm painted in 1913 or 1914 was sold for $ 38M by Christie's on November 8, 2006 from a lower estimate of $ 18M, lot 37. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
Two cocottes walk together in the middle of a dense crowd. The characters around them go in all directions, like in a whirlwind, without any interaction between them. Two men are in the foreground, not without arrogance. They are pimps or customers. In the background, the panel of the tram 15 enables to locate the scene in the heart of the big city.
This anxiety-provoking atmosphere is also perfectly transposed by Kirchner in his wood engravings. A Strassenszene with formidably unfriendly characters passed at Sotheby's on October 23, 2017. Fünf Kokotten, a grotesque interpretation of this weird fashion, was sold for CHF 920K before fees by Kornfeld on June 15, 2012.
Kirchner has to face the facts. Life in Berlin is not communal. Each individual is isolated in the crowd. At that time prostitutes were the queens of the Berlin sidewalk. They are recognizable by customers from odd signs which are not sufficient to make them intercepted by the police of morals : the high feather on the hat, the tight dresses in too bright colors.
The Strassenszene series, begun at the end of 1913 and interrupted by the war, marks Kirchner's attempt to interpret this city life which he did not want. An oil on canvas 122 x 91 cm painted in 1913 or 1914 was sold for $ 38M by Christie's on November 8, 2006 from a lower estimate of $ 18M, lot 37. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
Two cocottes walk together in the middle of a dense crowd. The characters around them go in all directions, like in a whirlwind, without any interaction between them. Two men are in the foreground, not without arrogance. They are pimps or customers. In the background, the panel of the tram 15 enables to locate the scene in the heart of the big city.
This anxiety-provoking atmosphere is also perfectly transposed by Kirchner in his wood engravings. A Strassenszene with formidably unfriendly characters passed at Sotheby's on October 23, 2017. Fünf Kokotten, a grotesque interpretation of this weird fashion, was sold for CHF 920K before fees by Kornfeld on June 15, 2012.
1938 Hölle der Vögel by Beckmann
2017 SOLD for £ 36M by Christie's
After the First World War, German artists like Max Beckmann, Max Ernst, George Grosz and Otto Dix brought social criticism to the level of a major art far beyond caricature. Of course the Nazi regime does not agree. Beckmann is one of the targets of Hitler's furious attacks on degenerate art.
Beckmann precipitately left Germany in 1937 and settled in Amsterdam. Like Miro at the same time in Spain, he could not manage to stay away from politics. He immediately conceived a great composition, first entitled Der Land des Wahnsinningen (the country of the insane) which would express his horror of the collectivisms.
Completed at the end of the summer of 1938, Hölle der Vögel (hell of birds) is the achievement of that project. This oil on canvas 120 x 160 cm was sold for £ 36M by Christie's on June 27, 2017, lot 11. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
This scene mixes the medieval and the modern to better express the permanent threat of abject persecution. Tortures are inflicted by hooded birds. In a claustrophobic atmosphere with black lines and garish colors, the victim chained on an Inquisition bed is a light spot. A bird plows his back to the blood with a large knife.
This lugubrious ceremony is presided by a harpy standing out of her broken egg with a monstrous breast. The crowd of secondary characters is made up of screaming nudes who perform the Hitler Grüss, removing any possible doubt about the interpretation of this allegory in the modern world.
The narrative abundance in that work is inspired by medieval imagery. The choice of the bird as a symbol of blind fury reminds the man-swallowing bird in Bosch's Hell.
The political violence in Hölle der Vögel may be compared to Picasso's Guernica, also conceived in 1937. Beckmann's painting, cautiously preserved in a private apartment in Paris until the end of the Second World War, would have deserved a similar notoriety.
Beckmann precipitately left Germany in 1937 and settled in Amsterdam. Like Miro at the same time in Spain, he could not manage to stay away from politics. He immediately conceived a great composition, first entitled Der Land des Wahnsinningen (the country of the insane) which would express his horror of the collectivisms.
Completed at the end of the summer of 1938, Hölle der Vögel (hell of birds) is the achievement of that project. This oil on canvas 120 x 160 cm was sold for £ 36M by Christie's on June 27, 2017, lot 11. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
This scene mixes the medieval and the modern to better express the permanent threat of abject persecution. Tortures are inflicted by hooded birds. In a claustrophobic atmosphere with black lines and garish colors, the victim chained on an Inquisition bed is a light spot. A bird plows his back to the blood with a large knife.
This lugubrious ceremony is presided by a harpy standing out of her broken egg with a monstrous breast. The crowd of secondary characters is made up of screaming nudes who perform the Hitler Grüss, removing any possible doubt about the interpretation of this allegory in the modern world.
The narrative abundance in that work is inspired by medieval imagery. The choice of the bird as a symbol of blind fury reminds the man-swallowing bird in Bosch's Hell.
The political violence in Hölle der Vögel may be compared to Picasso's Guernica, also conceived in 1937. Beckmann's painting, cautiously preserved in a private apartment in Paris until the end of the Second World War, would have deserved a similar notoriety.
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1955 Mercedes-Benz Uhlenhaut Coupé
2022 SOLD for € 135M by RM Sotheby's
Two special adaptations of the 3 litre 300 SLR coupé were made by Mercedes-Benz in 1955. Designed by Rudolf Uhlenhaut, they are known as the Uhlenhaut coupés. Capable of reaching 290 km/h, this model was the fastest road going car of its time.
Employed by Mercedes-Benz since 1931, Uhlenhaut had been a lead designer of the Silver Arrows, of the Formula One highly successful W196 of JM Fangio fame and of the open top Rennsport 300 SLR of Stirling Moss fame. He was also behind the scene of the Le Mans winner W194 and of the road going 300 SL gullwing.
The Uhlenhaut coupés were assembled as two seaters with gullwing doors on two W196 chassis left unused after the 1955 Le Mans crash and the subsequent withdrawal of the brand from motor sport.
Both prototypes were retained by Mercedes-Benz from new. Uhlenhaut had one as a company car. He once drove the 230 km on the autobahn between Stuttgart and Munich in less than an hour.
The first one is on display in the museum of the brand. The second car was used as a demonstration car and was restored in 1986. It was sold for € 135M on May 5, 2022 by RM Sotheby's in a private auction, lot 1. The proceeds help to create a Mercedes-Benz fund for young researchers in environmental science and carbon dioxide reduction.
Please watch the video shared by the auction house, featuring with the hammer Oliver Barker, chairman of Sotheby's Europe.
Employed by Mercedes-Benz since 1931, Uhlenhaut had been a lead designer of the Silver Arrows, of the Formula One highly successful W196 of JM Fangio fame and of the open top Rennsport 300 SLR of Stirling Moss fame. He was also behind the scene of the Le Mans winner W194 and of the road going 300 SL gullwing.
The Uhlenhaut coupés were assembled as two seaters with gullwing doors on two W196 chassis left unused after the 1955 Le Mans crash and the subsequent withdrawal of the brand from motor sport.
Both prototypes were retained by Mercedes-Benz from new. Uhlenhaut had one as a company car. He once drove the 230 km on the autobahn between Stuttgart and Munich in less than an hour.
The first one is on display in the museum of the brand. The second car was used as a demonstration car and was restored in 1986. It was sold for € 135M on May 5, 2022 by RM Sotheby's in a private auction, lot 1. The proceeds help to create a Mercedes-Benz fund for young researchers in environmental science and carbon dioxide reduction.
Please watch the video shared by the auction house, featuring with the hammer Oliver Barker, chairman of Sotheby's Europe.
RICHTER
1
1968 Domplatz Mailand
2013 SOLD for $ 37M by Sotheby's
Gerhard Richter is the true rebel of art. Some artists before him including Rauschenberg had introduced disgust as a variant of artistic impression. Richter goes much further. He debases the art to reveal its profound nature.
In 1962, he considers that a bad photo does not lie because it is too ugly to deserve retouching. It expresses real life, the reality of a fleeting moment which had probably been important for its author.
The anti-art by Richter consists to disproportionately enlarge black and white photos, blurry and often without any interest but in a great variety, by using a hyperrealistic technique already perfectly controlled.
One of his earliest works is the image of an airplane in flight, magnified as an oil on canvas up to 130 x 200 cm. Made in 1963, it was sold for £ 15.5M by Phillips on March 7, 2019, lot 13.
The strength of the anti-artistic message of Richter is so great and so new that he finds customers. Domplatz Mailand, an oil on canvas 275 x 290 cm painted in 1968, was commissioned by the Milanese offices of Siemens.
The image is a masterpiece of ugliness with a particularly unpleasant blur. The original photo was lost, thankfully! This photo by an unidentified tourist may be repeated by anyone, without blurring motion, with a more relevant composition than truncating both the cathedral on the right and the buildings on the left.
With this quality and its very large size, Mailand Domplatz is the culmination of the first period of Richter. On the following year, he managed to radically shake the established tradition of landscape painting.
Domplatz Mailand was sold for $ 37M by Sotheby's on May 14, 2013. This large painting is a technical feat of the first style of Richter, playing altogether on the easy identification of the subject and on the difficulty of reading it
In 1962, he considers that a bad photo does not lie because it is too ugly to deserve retouching. It expresses real life, the reality of a fleeting moment which had probably been important for its author.
The anti-art by Richter consists to disproportionately enlarge black and white photos, blurry and often without any interest but in a great variety, by using a hyperrealistic technique already perfectly controlled.
One of his earliest works is the image of an airplane in flight, magnified as an oil on canvas up to 130 x 200 cm. Made in 1963, it was sold for £ 15.5M by Phillips on March 7, 2019, lot 13.
The strength of the anti-artistic message of Richter is so great and so new that he finds customers. Domplatz Mailand, an oil on canvas 275 x 290 cm painted in 1968, was commissioned by the Milanese offices of Siemens.
The image is a masterpiece of ugliness with a particularly unpleasant blur. The original photo was lost, thankfully! This photo by an unidentified tourist may be repeated by anyone, without blurring motion, with a more relevant composition than truncating both the cathedral on the right and the buildings on the left.
With this quality and its very large size, Mailand Domplatz is the culmination of the first period of Richter. On the following year, he managed to radically shake the established tradition of landscape painting.
Domplatz Mailand was sold for $ 37M by Sotheby's on May 14, 2013. This large painting is a technical feat of the first style of Richter, playing altogether on the easy identification of the subject and on the difficulty of reading it
2
1986 AB 599
2015 SOLD for £ 30.4M by Sotheby's
Gerhard Richter redefines painting. He joins Malevich when he considers that an oil on canvas is a finished product which does not need figurative references. In the 1970s, he had attempted several forms of abstraction, including gray monochromes and color charts.
1982 is a year of great experimentation. On the figurative side, Richter paints icebergs. The shapes and colors dissolve, in a smoother way than in the weird blurry photo-realisms of the previous phase. In the same year, the candles are a pretext to approach the full extent of the colored spectrum.
The step is quickly taken. Also in 1982, the artist paints abstractions in very large format. Opus 492, Gelbgrün, is a diptych measuring 260 x 400 cm overall, sold for £ 10.9M by Sotheby's on March 7, 2018, lot 28.
On a light blue background, the artist added large floating shapes in strident yellow and bright green, through ample gestures inspired by Franz Kline's Action Painting. The squeegee appears as a complement to brush and knife for providing a semi-automatism. This thin, plastic-coated tool with handles is up to two meters long and 20 cm wide.
These experiments are convincing, and abstractions become predominant in Richter's art. With his squeegee, the artist explores the creation of an illusion of reality, abolishing the differentiation between figuration and abstraction. as de Kooning had done.
The opus 573-1, Schwefel, oil on canvas 200 x 300 cm painted in 1985, was sold for HK $ 118M by Sotheby's on April 19, 2021, lot 1127. The bright colors are more varied than in the example above, over a green background. The gestures are less ample, reducing the scarring effect. The composition is a clever mix between order and chaos.
Gerhard Richter conscientiously serializes his Abstraktes Bild (AB) in chronological order, in series ranging from one to ten paintings. A review of the 1986 millésime, AB 588 to AB 619, tracks the evolution of the technique and inspiration of the artist in this very important transition year which includes the first use of the squeegee.
At the beginning of 1986, Richter already goes further than other abstract artists by an extensive use of the range of colors and a great brightness. The first AB's of 1986 are often inspired by landscape views in which we try to recognize waterfalls of various shapes.
From 1986 Gerhard Richter gradually escapes evocation. He also wants to stand out from abstract expressionism in favor of a chaos of colors for which it will however be necessary to provide an overall logic.
His innovation is not only the use of the squeegee but the conjunction of this new tool with the brush and the knife. By mingling impastos and transparent veils, the artist creates shimmering effects while using the full range of colors. The brush is still used, especially to obtain over-shine sprinkles that reinforce or contradict the lines of forces separating the various areas in the image.
Abstraktes Bild 599 is sparkling, with bright contrasts amidst a geometric structure somewhat reminiscent of Boccioni's futuristic compartmentalization. This 250 x 300 cm oil on canvas was sold for £ 30.4M by Sotheby's on February 10, 2015, lot 37. The seminal work of this style was the opus 590 titled SDI, possibly a reference to the Cold War.
Chaos is here replaced by a double movement of forces, horizontal and vertical. This is one of his earliest uses of the squeegee which is still challenged by the brush. Many remorses indicate all the care paid to the realization of this painting in a large size that brings to it the role of a demonstrator.
The artist offers 599 with a full chromatic scale structured in blocks with visible border lines between the colored areas. The clear parts display an opulent shine.
The gigantic culmination of this phase is the two Claudius, AB 603 and AB 604, 311 x 406 cm each. Offered by Christie's on October 19, 2008 at the start of the crisis of the art market, AB 604 was not sold.
1982 is a year of great experimentation. On the figurative side, Richter paints icebergs. The shapes and colors dissolve, in a smoother way than in the weird blurry photo-realisms of the previous phase. In the same year, the candles are a pretext to approach the full extent of the colored spectrum.
The step is quickly taken. Also in 1982, the artist paints abstractions in very large format. Opus 492, Gelbgrün, is a diptych measuring 260 x 400 cm overall, sold for £ 10.9M by Sotheby's on March 7, 2018, lot 28.
On a light blue background, the artist added large floating shapes in strident yellow and bright green, through ample gestures inspired by Franz Kline's Action Painting. The squeegee appears as a complement to brush and knife for providing a semi-automatism. This thin, plastic-coated tool with handles is up to two meters long and 20 cm wide.
These experiments are convincing, and abstractions become predominant in Richter's art. With his squeegee, the artist explores the creation of an illusion of reality, abolishing the differentiation between figuration and abstraction. as de Kooning had done.
The opus 573-1, Schwefel, oil on canvas 200 x 300 cm painted in 1985, was sold for HK $ 118M by Sotheby's on April 19, 2021, lot 1127. The bright colors are more varied than in the example above, over a green background. The gestures are less ample, reducing the scarring effect. The composition is a clever mix between order and chaos.
Gerhard Richter conscientiously serializes his Abstraktes Bild (AB) in chronological order, in series ranging from one to ten paintings. A review of the 1986 millésime, AB 588 to AB 619, tracks the evolution of the technique and inspiration of the artist in this very important transition year which includes the first use of the squeegee.
At the beginning of 1986, Richter already goes further than other abstract artists by an extensive use of the range of colors and a great brightness. The first AB's of 1986 are often inspired by landscape views in which we try to recognize waterfalls of various shapes.
From 1986 Gerhard Richter gradually escapes evocation. He also wants to stand out from abstract expressionism in favor of a chaos of colors for which it will however be necessary to provide an overall logic.
His innovation is not only the use of the squeegee but the conjunction of this new tool with the brush and the knife. By mingling impastos and transparent veils, the artist creates shimmering effects while using the full range of colors. The brush is still used, especially to obtain over-shine sprinkles that reinforce or contradict the lines of forces separating the various areas in the image.
Abstraktes Bild 599 is sparkling, with bright contrasts amidst a geometric structure somewhat reminiscent of Boccioni's futuristic compartmentalization. This 250 x 300 cm oil on canvas was sold for £ 30.4M by Sotheby's on February 10, 2015, lot 37. The seminal work of this style was the opus 590 titled SDI, possibly a reference to the Cold War.
Chaos is here replaced by a double movement of forces, horizontal and vertical. This is one of his earliest uses of the squeegee which is still challenged by the brush. Many remorses indicate all the care paid to the realization of this painting in a large size that brings to it the role of a demonstrator.
The artist offers 599 with a full chromatic scale structured in blocks with visible border lines between the colored areas. The clear parts display an opulent shine.
The gigantic culmination of this phase is the two Claudius, AB 603 and AB 604, 311 x 406 cm each. Offered by Christie's on October 19, 2008 at the start of the crisis of the art market, AB 604 was not sold.
3
AB 612-4 Still
2016 SOLD for $ 34M by Sotheby's
Beside the very large 1986 Richter masterpieces, smaller creations are resulting from specific experiments including the use of the squeegee.
The Abstraktes Bild 611-2, oil on canvas 200 x 160 cm, has been executed in many successive yellow, green, blue and white paint layers, nearly cancelled by the ultimate very violent luminous scarlet red vertically applied by the squeegee. This wet on wet gestural rippling creates an infinite variation in the close up texture effect.
611-2 is estimated £ 16M for sale by Sotheby's on October 12, 2023, lot 109. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
AB 612-4, 225 x 200 cm, titled Still, was sold for $ 34M from a lower estimate of $ 20M by Sotheby's on November 17, 2016, lot 13.
To execute Still, the artist used jointly brushes and squeegees. The contribution of the squeegee adds a smooth veil over the impasto. The dividing lines are now disappearing.
The title is interesting. Still is of course not a movie picture. The website gerhardrichter.com provides the official English translation : Quiet.
Pictorially, 612-4 is not quiet. The scarlet curtain brought by the squeegee in its ultimate layer reminds the dramatic 611-2 and may echo Clyfford Still's hells. The intermingling colors that open the new style of Richter remind the shredded separations between Clyfford Still's colors.
Gerhard Richter rarely reveals his inspirations. A.B. Courbet comes in 1986 with two works which are not series, 615 and 616, oils on canvas 300 x 250 cm. The compositions are not similar : 615 has a luminous lozenge which draws attention to the upper part of the image.
Titles that refer to another artist are exceptional, and the Still above may be the American master of that name. The total abstraction and the mixing of colors cannot have anything to do with the French master of pre-impressionist realism. The colors may evoke Monet's garden. Monet's views of the Parliament of London will indeed explicitly inspire Richter in the following year.
Richter maintains his revolutionary desires. The creation of his abstract chaos has an anarchist motivation. "Courbet" is his homage to one of his most innovative and uncompromising predecessors, indirectly attesting to his satisfaction with his own results. A.B. Courbet 616 was sold for $ 26.5M by Sotheby's on November 13, 2013, lot 22.
The Abstraktes Bild 611-2, oil on canvas 200 x 160 cm, has been executed in many successive yellow, green, blue and white paint layers, nearly cancelled by the ultimate very violent luminous scarlet red vertically applied by the squeegee. This wet on wet gestural rippling creates an infinite variation in the close up texture effect.
611-2 is estimated £ 16M for sale by Sotheby's on October 12, 2023, lot 109. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
AB 612-4, 225 x 200 cm, titled Still, was sold for $ 34M from a lower estimate of $ 20M by Sotheby's on November 17, 2016, lot 13.
To execute Still, the artist used jointly brushes and squeegees. The contribution of the squeegee adds a smooth veil over the impasto. The dividing lines are now disappearing.
The title is interesting. Still is of course not a movie picture. The website gerhardrichter.com provides the official English translation : Quiet.
Pictorially, 612-4 is not quiet. The scarlet curtain brought by the squeegee in its ultimate layer reminds the dramatic 611-2 and may echo Clyfford Still's hells. The intermingling colors that open the new style of Richter remind the shredded separations between Clyfford Still's colors.
Gerhard Richter rarely reveals his inspirations. A.B. Courbet comes in 1986 with two works which are not series, 615 and 616, oils on canvas 300 x 250 cm. The compositions are not similar : 615 has a luminous lozenge which draws attention to the upper part of the image.
Titles that refer to another artist are exceptional, and the Still above may be the American master of that name. The total abstraction and the mixing of colors cannot have anything to do with the French master of pre-impressionist realism. The colors may evoke Monet's garden. Monet's views of the Parliament of London will indeed explicitly inspire Richter in the following year.
Richter maintains his revolutionary desires. The creation of his abstract chaos has an anarchist motivation. "Courbet" is his homage to one of his most innovative and uncompromising predecessors, indirectly attesting to his satisfaction with his own results. A.B. Courbet 616 was sold for $ 26.5M by Sotheby's on November 13, 2013, lot 22.
4
1993 AB 797-2
2021 SOLD for $ 33M by Sotheby's
Gerhard Richter admitted that the process for his abstract paintings included some unplanned effect to be offset by his ultimate inspection of his creation. In all cases, even in his sublimely chaotic and most sumptuous abstract works, chance followed a detailed preparation adapted for each opus.
The catalogue raisonné for 1993 begins with Grün Blau Rot, a series of no less than 126 oils on canvas 30 x 40 cm continuously numbered in two sub-series from 789-1 to 789-115 and from 789-a to 789-k.
This time consuming task was obviously intended to test the visual effects of detailed forms confronting three basic colors without changing the pigments. The Rot Blau Gelb of 1973, numbered 338-1 to 338-100 in rectangular format and 339-1 to 339-7 in square format, had been a similar experience.
The 1993 green blue red was immediately reused by the artist with the brushes as the background layer in seven large size square paintings. Random effects were added with the squeegee in the desired range of vibrant colors. Richter's tool has here a deconstructing role that cancels forever the intermediate states, same as the drippings for Pollock.
The importance of this process is confirmed by the fact that one of these Abstrakte Bilder was representing Richter's abstractions in the severely selected Macklowe collection. This 797-2, oil on canvas 240 x 240 cm painted in 1993, was sold for $ 33M from a lower estimate of $ 20M by Sotheby's on November 15, 2021, lot 22.
The catalogue raisonné for 1993 begins with Grün Blau Rot, a series of no less than 126 oils on canvas 30 x 40 cm continuously numbered in two sub-series from 789-1 to 789-115 and from 789-a to 789-k.
This time consuming task was obviously intended to test the visual effects of detailed forms confronting three basic colors without changing the pigments. The Rot Blau Gelb of 1973, numbered 338-1 to 338-100 in rectangular format and 339-1 to 339-7 in square format, had been a similar experience.
The 1993 green blue red was immediately reused by the artist with the brushes as the background layer in seven large size square paintings. Random effects were added with the squeegee in the desired range of vibrant colors. Richter's tool has here a deconstructing role that cancels forever the intermediate states, same as the drippings for Pollock.
The importance of this process is confirmed by the fact that one of these Abstrakte Bilder was representing Richter's abstractions in the severely selected Macklowe collection. This 797-2, oil on canvas 240 x 240 cm painted in 1993, was sold for $ 33M from a lower estimate of $ 20M by Sotheby's on November 15, 2021, lot 22.
5
1994 AB 809-4
2022 SOLD for $ 36.5M by Christie's
The Abstraktes Bild 809-4 was sold for £ 21.3M by Sotheby's on October 12, 2012, lot 15, and for $ 36.5M by Christie's on May 10, 2022, lot 8 B.
This oil on canvas 225 x 200 cm was painted in 1994 in the period of greater maturity in the abstract art of Gerhard Richter, when his technique of squeegee was fully developed.
With always different and often subtle colors, the horizontal movement of the rake comes in opposition with large vertical streaks. However, the shock of colors is not actually geometric or cleverly dispositioned or allusive of forms. Richter renewed the abstract art without imitating Rothko, or Zao Wou-ki, or Still, and Pollock not either.
Richter's magic is to provide an impression of spontaneity in paintings extensively worked until reaching the emotion intended by the artist. The wording proposed in Sotheby's catalogue of an "exuberant cacophony" is not enough. For the balance of colors and shapes, Richter has indeed the absolute eye.
The abstract world of Richter is the chaos of current time. Musicians enjoy Richter as they enjoy Basquiat. In 2012, 809-4 had been brought to auction by Eric Clapton.
This oil on canvas 225 x 200 cm was painted in 1994 in the period of greater maturity in the abstract art of Gerhard Richter, when his technique of squeegee was fully developed.
With always different and often subtle colors, the horizontal movement of the rake comes in opposition with large vertical streaks. However, the shock of colors is not actually geometric or cleverly dispositioned or allusive of forms. Richter renewed the abstract art without imitating Rothko, or Zao Wou-ki, or Still, and Pollock not either.
Richter's magic is to provide an impression of spontaneity in paintings extensively worked until reaching the emotion intended by the artist. The wording proposed in Sotheby's catalogue of an "exuberant cacophony" is not enough. For the balance of colors and shapes, Richter has indeed the absolute eye.
The abstract world of Richter is the chaos of current time. Musicians enjoy Richter as they enjoy Basquiat. In 2012, 809-4 had been brought to auction by Eric Clapton.
