Richter before 1986
1963 Flight for a New Art
2016 SOLD for $ 25.6M including premium, UNPAID
2019 SOLD for £ 15.5M including premium
PRE 2019 SALE DISCUSSION
Painted in 1963, Düsenjäger is a masterpiece from the earliest phase of the career of Gerhard Richter. Similar themes were dared at the same time in another style by Roy Lichtenstein in his revolutionary conception of the Pop Art.
Düsenjäger, oil on canvas 130 x 200 cm, was sold for $ 11.2M including premium by Christie's on 13 November 2007.
It reached $ 25.6M including premium at Phillips on November 16, 2016, lot 7. The buyer defaulted but the consignor had been paid before the litigation. The artwork remained in the custody and ownership of the auction house. The story is told by Georgina Adam in The Art Newspaper.
Düsenjäger is now estimated £ 10M to £ 15M for sale by Phillips in London on March 7, lot 13.
I narrated this lot as follows before the 2016 sale. The video had been prepared by Phillips before that auction.
During the war Gerhard Richter is a Dresden boy. He admires the feats of the soldiers. One of them brings him back to reason : he just deserves a spanking.
Years pass. Germany is a major challenge of the Cold War. Richter leaves to the west in 1961, two months before the build of the Berlin Wall. With his friends in the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf he wants a new art that expresses their time with no legacy from the pictorial styles of the past. These students conceive the Capitalist Realism. What a program !
Richter believes that truth lays in photography because a photo catches a moment. The message is stronger if the image is poor. When copying these banalities in oil on large canvases, he maintains the grisaille or the poor color of the original view. He blurs the lines during the completion phase of his artwork in order that no detail shall disturb the overall effect.
He executes two paintings on the theme of military aviation in 1963. Bomber shows a US squadron dropping bombs during the Second World War. Düsenjäger, meaning jet fighter, displays the first military aircraft authorized in the Federal Republic with NATO support.
Düsenjäger is huge. The jet is in flight over any horizon. The blur gives an illusion of speed and the colors are ugly. The original photo was poor. The front of the aircraft is already out of the frame : it was going too fast.
The artist has often commented about his art. He does not want to be a politician or an anti-militarist. The juxtaposition of Bomber and Düsenjäger provides nevertheless a strong message.
The jet fighter is certainly necessary for the military balance. This terrifying machine demonstrates however that no political progress was made after the Second World War : in 1963 everybody waits for the international conflict that will follow the Cold War. Bomber and Düsenjäger are indeed the Guernica of Gerhard Richter.
Painted in 1963, Düsenjäger is a masterpiece from the earliest phase of the career of Gerhard Richter. Similar themes were dared at the same time in another style by Roy Lichtenstein in his revolutionary conception of the Pop Art.
Düsenjäger, oil on canvas 130 x 200 cm, was sold for $ 11.2M including premium by Christie's on 13 November 2007.
It reached $ 25.6M including premium at Phillips on November 16, 2016, lot 7. The buyer defaulted but the consignor had been paid before the litigation. The artwork remained in the custody and ownership of the auction house. The story is told by Georgina Adam in The Art Newspaper.
Düsenjäger is now estimated £ 10M to £ 15M for sale by Phillips in London on March 7, lot 13.
I narrated this lot as follows before the 2016 sale. The video had been prepared by Phillips before that auction.
During the war Gerhard Richter is a Dresden boy. He admires the feats of the soldiers. One of them brings him back to reason : he just deserves a spanking.
Years pass. Germany is a major challenge of the Cold War. Richter leaves to the west in 1961, two months before the build of the Berlin Wall. With his friends in the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf he wants a new art that expresses their time with no legacy from the pictorial styles of the past. These students conceive the Capitalist Realism. What a program !
Richter believes that truth lays in photography because a photo catches a moment. The message is stronger if the image is poor. When copying these banalities in oil on large canvases, he maintains the grisaille or the poor color of the original view. He blurs the lines during the completion phase of his artwork in order that no detail shall disturb the overall effect.
He executes two paintings on the theme of military aviation in 1963. Bomber shows a US squadron dropping bombs during the Second World War. Düsenjäger, meaning jet fighter, displays the first military aircraft authorized in the Federal Republic with NATO support.
Düsenjäger is huge. The jet is in flight over any horizon. The blur gives an illusion of speed and the colors are ugly. The original photo was poor. The front of the aircraft is already out of the frame : it was going too fast.
The artist has often commented about his art. He does not want to be a politician or an anti-militarist. The juxtaposition of Bomber and Düsenjäger provides nevertheless a strong message.
The jet fighter is certainly necessary for the military balance. This terrifying machine demonstrates however that no political progress was made after the Second World War : in 1963 everybody waits for the international conflict that will follow the Cold War. Bomber and Düsenjäger are indeed the Guernica of Gerhard Richter.
1966 Gerhard Richter explores the Anti-Art
2010 SOLD 13.2 M$ including premium
PRE SALE DISCUSSION
In 1966, the art market did not know that Gerhard Richter will be one of the most important painters and theorists of the end of the century. His work will be complete, from figurative to abstract and from monochromatic to bright colors.
He was 34 years old. One hundred years before him, the traditionalists reviled the painters who were preparing their works by the photography in a quest for realism. Richter did the opposite. He choses a banal photo, black and white, in a first step which excludes the artistic creation. It projects the image onto the canvas which he paints, then he scrambles it by energetic brush strokes.
A painting by Richter resembles a bad image from a newspaper or from broadcast blurred up to the limit of readability. It is an artistic feat, first because the vagueness encourages the audience to imagine the real, second because at that time the bad images had already invaded our daily lives.
The Weserburg Museum of Bremen, founded in 1991, aims to support contemporary artistic creation. It could be proud to own an outstanding work of Richter. In a bold cultural gesture, it is commissioning Sotheby's to sell it.Richter was the rising star of 1966, and the museum prefers to discover and encourage the artists of today.
In more than 2 meters wide, Matrosen shows a group of sailors, in two rows like the photo of a sports team or a college class. This painting is estimated $ 6M, and the illustration is shared by Artdaily in an article prepared after a press conference organized by the museum. This will be one of the highlights of the evening sale in New York on November 9.
POST SALE COMMENT
The price, $ 13.2 million including premium, is an acknowledgement of the originality and depth of the artistic ideas of Richter at the outset of his career.
In 1966, the art market did not know that Gerhard Richter will be one of the most important painters and theorists of the end of the century. His work will be complete, from figurative to abstract and from monochromatic to bright colors.
He was 34 years old. One hundred years before him, the traditionalists reviled the painters who were preparing their works by the photography in a quest for realism. Richter did the opposite. He choses a banal photo, black and white, in a first step which excludes the artistic creation. It projects the image onto the canvas which he paints, then he scrambles it by energetic brush strokes.
A painting by Richter resembles a bad image from a newspaper or from broadcast blurred up to the limit of readability. It is an artistic feat, first because the vagueness encourages the audience to imagine the real, second because at that time the bad images had already invaded our daily lives.
The Weserburg Museum of Bremen, founded in 1991, aims to support contemporary artistic creation. It could be proud to own an outstanding work of Richter. In a bold cultural gesture, it is commissioning Sotheby's to sell it.Richter was the rising star of 1966, and the museum prefers to discover and encourage the artists of today.
In more than 2 meters wide, Matrosen shows a group of sailors, in two rows like the photo of a sports team or a college class. This painting is estimated $ 6M, and the illustration is shared by Artdaily in an article prepared after a press conference organized by the museum. This will be one of the highlights of the evening sale in New York on November 9.
POST SALE COMMENT
The price, $ 13.2 million including premium, is an acknowledgement of the originality and depth of the artistic ideas of Richter at the outset of his career.
1967 Beyond Germany
2019 SOLD for $ 20.5M including premium
From 1963 to 1967 Gerhard Richter realizes his series of photo-paintings, appropriations in oil on canvas in giant format of bad black and white photos. For some images like Düsenjäger painted in 1963, he explains his choice with a personal memory. The rest is more difficult to decode, probably related to intimate feelings.
This unprecedented practice of blurred paintings on themes of extreme banality brings him fame and customers. He diversifies his techniques without losing his desire to shock, as for example with his Farbtafeln.
On November 13 in New York, Christie's sells one of the latest photo-paintings, oil on canvas 180 x 180 cm painted in 1967, lot 12 B estimated $ 18M.
This gray image shows the ferry from the Hamburg-Copenhagen transport line during the swallowing of a train, in a row between the terminal and the Baltic. Inaugurated four years before, this line named Vogelfluglinie is still a recent topic. The blur leads to the limits of readability.
Unique in Richter's imagery, this dehumanized picture comes in full opposition with his erotic and pornographic inspirations of the same period. The line of the bird flight could have been an invitation to travel beyond Germany. It is instead a witness to some repulsive ugliness in modern life. With Richter, everything seems simple but nothing is simple.
This unprecedented practice of blurred paintings on themes of extreme banality brings him fame and customers. He diversifies his techniques without losing his desire to shock, as for example with his Farbtafeln.
On November 13 in New York, Christie's sells one of the latest photo-paintings, oil on canvas 180 x 180 cm painted in 1967, lot 12 B estimated $ 18M.
This gray image shows the ferry from the Hamburg-Copenhagen transport line during the swallowing of a train, in a row between the terminal and the Baltic. Inaugurated four years before, this line named Vogelfluglinie is still a recent topic. The blur leads to the limits of readability.
Unique in Richter's imagery, this dehumanized picture comes in full opposition with his erotic and pornographic inspirations of the same period. The line of the bird flight could have been an invitation to travel beyond Germany. It is instead a witness to some repulsive ugliness in modern life. With Richter, everything seems simple but nothing is simple.
1968 Richter invents the Hyperrealistic Blur
2013 SOLD 37 M$ including premium
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 $ 11.2 million including premium by Christie's on November 13, 2007.
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 is estimated $ 30M, for sale by Sotheby's in New York on May 14. It is illustrated in a very interesting blog post shared by the auction house.
I invite you to watch the video shared by Sotheby's.
POST SALE COMMENT
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. It was sold $ 37M including premium.
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 $ 11.2 million including premium by Christie's on November 13, 2007.
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 is estimated $ 30M, for sale by Sotheby's in New York on May 14. It is illustrated in a very interesting blog post shared by the auction house.
I invite you to watch the video shared by Sotheby's.
POST SALE COMMENT
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. It was sold $ 37M including premium.
1969 The Sublime Landscape of Gerhard Richter
2015 SOLD for £ 15.8M including premium
From his beginnings in the 1960s with his recuperation of blurry photos, Gerhard Richter questioned the meaning of art in the society. In parallel, he perfected his technique of brushstrokes to create subtle color variations that will characterize the rest of his career.
In 1969, he already appears both as an excellent practitioner and as a theorist. Admirer of Friedrich, Richter appreciates that the romantic paintings of landscapes are timeless because the landscapes have no soul. The fact that the most beautiful natural sites are universally considered as sublime is a paradox that the perfection of his own art will unveil, or rather denounce.
In his library of images, Richter chooses Lake Lucerne (Vierwaldstätter See) in the violent backlighting of a cloudy day. All the elements converge for his purposed demonstration: the mountains in the shadow or in the fog, the variations of sky and water and the reflections on the lake.
The lines are blurred like the edges of Rothko's rectangles. Richter brings a sumptuous variation of shades by spreading a dry brush on the wet canvas, two decades before extending his use of the squeegee in abstract art.
His view of Lake Lucerne is supposed to compete altogether with nature and Turner. This oil on canvas 120 x 150 cm will be sold by Christie's in London on February 11, lot 8.
In 1969, he already appears both as an excellent practitioner and as a theorist. Admirer of Friedrich, Richter appreciates that the romantic paintings of landscapes are timeless because the landscapes have no soul. The fact that the most beautiful natural sites are universally considered as sublime is a paradox that the perfection of his own art will unveil, or rather denounce.
In his library of images, Richter chooses Lake Lucerne (Vierwaldstätter See) in the violent backlighting of a cloudy day. All the elements converge for his purposed demonstration: the mountains in the shadow or in the fog, the variations of sky and water and the reflections on the lake.
The lines are blurred like the edges of Rothko's rectangles. Richter brings a sumptuous variation of shades by spreading a dry brush on the wet canvas, two decades before extending his use of the squeegee in abstract art.
His view of Lake Lucerne is supposed to compete altogether with nature and Turner. This oil on canvas 120 x 150 cm will be sold by Christie's in London on February 11, lot 8.
1970 The Evaporated City
2020 SOLD for £ 10.4M including premium
Gerhard Richter redefines art, appropriating shabby photos whose meaning is important to him or more often to nobody. He thus becomes a specialist in blurred images of monumental size.
However, he does not want to lose any filiation with the great masters of the past. The clouds catch his attention. Their shape and color are constantly changing and yet they are perfectly identifiable. Through the clouds, Richter finds Friedrich, Constable and Turner.
After trials in limited dimensions and quantities in 1968 and 1969, the artist explores more systematically the clouds in 1970. For this sole year, his catalogue raisonné includes fifteen paintings on this theme, with various effects : pink, blue, green blue, atmosphere, backlight, abstract.
Within this set the opus 266 titled Wolken (Fenster) is the most ambitious, and the only one to meet one of Richter's fundamental ambitions : to simulate an architectural environment.
This quadriptych of oils on canvas of individual dimension 200 x 100 cm appears like a large fragmented window which opens onto nothing. In turn, this nothingness takes on an emotional meaning by making the visitor believe that he sees the sky at sunset from the upper floors of a skyscraper, evaporating the city. This work anticipates the fragmented pools by David Hockney by almost ten years and the panels of snow-capped mountain scenery by Cui Ruzhuo by four decades.
Wolken (Fenster) was sold for £ 6.2M including premium by Christie's on October 13, 2014 and is estimated £ 9M for sale by Sotheby's in London on July 28, lot 20.
Among the Wolken of the same group, let us quote the pink triptych opus 267 of the same dimension of elements as the 266, sold for $ 5M including premium by Christie's on May 11, 2011, and the opus 269, 170 x 170 cm, sold twice by Sotheby's, for $ 5.7M including premium on May 9, 2012 and for £ 4.1M including premium on February 10, 2015.
However, he does not want to lose any filiation with the great masters of the past. The clouds catch his attention. Their shape and color are constantly changing and yet they are perfectly identifiable. Through the clouds, Richter finds Friedrich, Constable and Turner.
After trials in limited dimensions and quantities in 1968 and 1969, the artist explores more systematically the clouds in 1970. For this sole year, his catalogue raisonné includes fifteen paintings on this theme, with various effects : pink, blue, green blue, atmosphere, backlight, abstract.
Within this set the opus 266 titled Wolken (Fenster) is the most ambitious, and the only one to meet one of Richter's fundamental ambitions : to simulate an architectural environment.
This quadriptych of oils on canvas of individual dimension 200 x 100 cm appears like a large fragmented window which opens onto nothing. In turn, this nothingness takes on an emotional meaning by making the visitor believe that he sees the sky at sunset from the upper floors of a skyscraper, evaporating the city. This work anticipates the fragmented pools by David Hockney by almost ten years and the panels of snow-capped mountain scenery by Cui Ruzhuo by four decades.
Wolken (Fenster) was sold for £ 6.2M including premium by Christie's on October 13, 2014 and is estimated £ 9M for sale by Sotheby's in London on July 28, lot 20.
Among the Wolken of the same group, let us quote the pink triptych opus 267 of the same dimension of elements as the 266, sold for $ 5M including premium by Christie's on May 11, 2011, and the opus 269, 170 x 170 cm, sold twice by Sotheby's, for $ 5.7M including premium on May 9, 2012 and for £ 4.1M including premium on February 10, 2015.
1976 The Fake Language of the Sky
2013 SOLD 7.6 M£ including premium
Gerhard Richter is indeed the most sought after of living artists on the current art market, but he is also and especially a rebel. His hyper-realistic enlargement of trivial photographs was his first way of contesting art. Then came the series of Clouds (Wolke).
From 1969, Richter realizes himself the photos that serve as models for his oil paintings. The land, the sea, the iceberg is dominated by the sky. Often, only the sky is remaining, more or less cloudy.
Richter tried to explain to the viewer that only the image is mattering and that his art has no meaning. He did not succeed. As in front of a surrealist work, we try to decypher it, and sometimes we think achieving it, but Richter has too much control of his art for leaving a rationale for a mystical interpretation.
If his clouds are not mystical, they are certainly mystifying. Their opposing masses are sometimes linked by diaphanous vapor bridges like angel hair. We forget that we have lost in this snapshot the motion created by wind, which reveals that the masses looking so close are sometimes far distant, like the stars together.
Two Wolken painted in 1970 recently went to auction. A triptych of overall size 200 x 300 cm was sold for $ 5M including premium by Christie's on 11 May 2011. White clouds in front of a blue sky, 170 x 170 cm, were sold $ 5.7 million including premium on 9 May 2012 at Sotheby's.
A large Wolke made in 1976, 200 x 300 cm, is estimated £ 7M, for sale at Sotheby's in London on February 12. This price is ambitious when it is reminded that the beautiful 1971 landscape of Tenerife, of same size, remained unsold at Christie's in New York on November 14, 2012 from an estimate of $ 10M.
I invite you to play the video in which Sotheby's introduced two artworks by Richter prepared for the next sale, including the 1976 Wolke.
POST SALE COMMENT
I believed that this artwork would be difficult to sell. The result, £ 7.6 million including premium, is a good surprise, just below the estimate.
From 1969, Richter realizes himself the photos that serve as models for his oil paintings. The land, the sea, the iceberg is dominated by the sky. Often, only the sky is remaining, more or less cloudy.
Richter tried to explain to the viewer that only the image is mattering and that his art has no meaning. He did not succeed. As in front of a surrealist work, we try to decypher it, and sometimes we think achieving it, but Richter has too much control of his art for leaving a rationale for a mystical interpretation.
If his clouds are not mystical, they are certainly mystifying. Their opposing masses are sometimes linked by diaphanous vapor bridges like angel hair. We forget that we have lost in this snapshot the motion created by wind, which reveals that the masses looking so close are sometimes far distant, like the stars together.
Two Wolken painted in 1970 recently went to auction. A triptych of overall size 200 x 300 cm was sold for $ 5M including premium by Christie's on 11 May 2011. White clouds in front of a blue sky, 170 x 170 cm, were sold $ 5.7 million including premium on 9 May 2012 at Sotheby's.
A large Wolke made in 1976, 200 x 300 cm, is estimated £ 7M, for sale at Sotheby's in London on February 12. This price is ambitious when it is reminded that the beautiful 1971 landscape of Tenerife, of same size, remained unsold at Christie's in New York on November 14, 2012 from an estimate of $ 10M.
I invite you to play the video in which Sotheby's introduced two artworks by Richter prepared for the next sale, including the 1976 Wolke.
POST SALE COMMENT
I believed that this artwork would be difficult to sell. The result, £ 7.6 million including premium, is a good surprise, just below the estimate.
1982 Drama in the Ice
2017 SOLD for £ 17.7M including premium
The Arctic landscapes by Gerhard Richter are associated with turning points in his personal life. In 1972 he made a ten-day cruise to Greenland to forget his professional and conjugal embarrassments and he shot almost abstract photos on the theme of light on ice. He liked to refer to the romantic work of Caspar David Friedrich evoking the heroic exploration of the Northwest Passage in the 1820s.
The situation is different in 1981. Richter divorces from Ema, his wife since 1957, and prepares his second marriage, with Isa. Recognizing that he is closing a phase of his life, he reminds his intense experience in Greenland, with the lifeless frozen sea in a light which is splendid by its uniformity.
He painted three oil paintings on this theme.
Eis, 70 x 100 cm, opus 476 painted in 1981, shows the ice blocks drifting up to the horizon in this world where human beings have no access. It was sold for £ 4,3M including premium by Sotheby's on February 15, 2012. Eisberg im Nebel, of same size, opus 496-1 made in 1982, is a study of fog on a free sea.
On March 8 in London, Sotheby's sells the largest of the three artworks, Eisberg, 101 x 151 cm, opus 496-2 painted in 1982, lot 8 estimated £ 8M. The composition is dominated by a towering iceberg over the horizon. On the sea the mountain is imperceptibly subject to movement at this key moment when the life of the artist is changing.
I do not think that the reference to Friedrich remains relevant at the time of the 1982 paintings. The artist is then fascinated by the diversity of light and by the challenge that it creates for the painter. The series of candles (Kerzen), much more ambitious, begins immediately afterward, opus 497-1 to 497-3, 498-1 to 498-4, 499-1 to 499-4 and later extensions.
The situation is different in 1981. Richter divorces from Ema, his wife since 1957, and prepares his second marriage, with Isa. Recognizing that he is closing a phase of his life, he reminds his intense experience in Greenland, with the lifeless frozen sea in a light which is splendid by its uniformity.
He painted three oil paintings on this theme.
Eis, 70 x 100 cm, opus 476 painted in 1981, shows the ice blocks drifting up to the horizon in this world where human beings have no access. It was sold for £ 4,3M including premium by Sotheby's on February 15, 2012. Eisberg im Nebel, of same size, opus 496-1 made in 1982, is a study of fog on a free sea.
On March 8 in London, Sotheby's sells the largest of the three artworks, Eisberg, 101 x 151 cm, opus 496-2 painted in 1982, lot 8 estimated £ 8M. The composition is dominated by a towering iceberg over the horizon. On the sea the mountain is imperceptibly subject to movement at this key moment when the life of the artist is changing.
I do not think that the reference to Friedrich remains relevant at the time of the 1982 paintings. The artist is then fascinated by the diversity of light and by the challenge that it creates for the painter. The series of candles (Kerzen), much more ambitious, begins immediately afterward, opus 497-1 to 497-3, 498-1 to 498-4, 499-1 to 499-4 and later extensions.
1982 The Supreme Simplicity of Richter's Candle
2011 SOLD 10.5 M£ including premium
With his series of candles (Kerzen), Gerhard Richter reaches an apotheosis of the simplicity in art. The candle is short-lived, consumed by its own flame. This artefact of light has always been a symbol of life, hope, fragility, death, a mystical symbol which stands unanimously beyond all religions.
Richter candles are simple, but his art is not. The sharpness of the cylinder of tallow is contrasting with the halo of light and the voluntarily blurred background, reminding us that the artist controls his painting material up to being the best abstract painter of our time.
A candle painted by Richter in 1982, oil on canvas 83 x 62 cm, is for sale by Christie's in London on October 14. It is estimated £ 6M.
The background evoking the light of a window corner is similar to the study of two candles made in the same year, oil on canvas 150 x 100 cm, sold $ 13M including premium at Christie's on November 10, 2010, which I discussed in this group.
The single candle, 95 x 90 cm, sold £ 8M including premium by Sotheby's on February 27, 2008 dates of the next year, with a less dreamlike background and a less visible wick.
POST SALE COMMENT
Excellent price for this painting of remarkable quality: £ 10.5 million including premium.
Richter candles are simple, but his art is not. The sharpness of the cylinder of tallow is contrasting with the halo of light and the voluntarily blurred background, reminding us that the artist controls his painting material up to being the best abstract painter of our time.
A candle painted by Richter in 1982, oil on canvas 83 x 62 cm, is for sale by Christie's in London on October 14. It is estimated £ 6M.
The background evoking the light of a window corner is similar to the study of two candles made in the same year, oil on canvas 150 x 100 cm, sold $ 13M including premium at Christie's on November 10, 2010, which I discussed in this group.
The single candle, 95 x 90 cm, sold £ 8M including premium by Sotheby's on February 27, 2008 dates of the next year, with a less dreamlike background and a less visible wick.
POST SALE COMMENT
Excellent price for this painting of remarkable quality: £ 10.5 million including premium.
1982 Gerhard Richter, Simply
2010 SOLD 13 M$ including premium
PRE SALE DISCUSSION
I have already introduced Richter as one of the most eclectic artists of his time, always innovative in terms of expressive and pictural research.
What can be imagined more simple and more complex than a lit candle? The candle is a simple and essential object of the past, but its liturgical role projects it into the present. Its geometry also is simple, but the diffusion of its light is a challenge to the colorist and a mystical symbol.
The youth of the 1980s, which sought new paths of knowledge, understood the candle of Richter. The reproduction of a painting of this series made in 1983 was used for the cover of an album by Sonic Youth. The original, 95 x 90 cm, was sold £ 8M including premium by Sotheby's on February 27, 2008.
Richter has varied the number of candles from one painting to another in the series. On November 10 in New York, Christie's sells Zwei Kerzen (Two Candles), an oil on canvas painted in 1982, 150 x 100 cm, estimated $ 12M. They are very cleverly arranged in front of a two-tone background that makes the effect of a window's corner. The image is shown on the release shared by Artdaily.
It is a masterpiece of contemporary art. Simply.
POST SALE COMMENT
Well represented in the evening sales of current week in New York, Gerhard Richter strengthens his position as a major artist of our time, and one of the few non-Americans to be able to occupy a dominant position in such auctions.
The painting of the two candles, sold for $ 13M including premium, met the estimates, no more. Simply.
I have already introduced Richter as one of the most eclectic artists of his time, always innovative in terms of expressive and pictural research.
What can be imagined more simple and more complex than a lit candle? The candle is a simple and essential object of the past, but its liturgical role projects it into the present. Its geometry also is simple, but the diffusion of its light is a challenge to the colorist and a mystical symbol.
The youth of the 1980s, which sought new paths of knowledge, understood the candle of Richter. The reproduction of a painting of this series made in 1983 was used for the cover of an album by Sonic Youth. The original, 95 x 90 cm, was sold £ 8M including premium by Sotheby's on February 27, 2008.
Richter has varied the number of candles from one painting to another in the series. On November 10 in New York, Christie's sells Zwei Kerzen (Two Candles), an oil on canvas painted in 1982, 150 x 100 cm, estimated $ 12M. They are very cleverly arranged in front of a two-tone background that makes the effect of a window's corner. The image is shown on the release shared by Artdaily.
It is a masterpiece of contemporary art. Simply.
POST SALE COMMENT
Well represented in the evening sales of current week in New York, Gerhard Richter strengthens his position as a major artist of our time, and one of the few non-Americans to be able to occupy a dominant position in such auctions.
The painting of the two candles, sold for $ 13M including premium, met the estimates, no more. Simply.
