Gerhard RICHTER (born in 1932)
Except otherwise stated, all results include the premium.
See also : Richter < 1983
Chronology : 1968 1975 1986 1987 1990-1999 1993 1994 1997
See also : Richter < 1983
Chronology : 1968 1975 1986 1987 1990-1999 1993 1994 1997
Intro
Gerhard Richter (born 1932 in Dresden, Germany) is one of the most influential living artists, known for his diverse oeuvre that oscillates between photorealistic paintings, abstracts, and other media. While not a formal clinical evaluation, an interpretive psychological reading of his life and art reveals recurring themes of trauma, ambiguity, skepticism toward ideology, emotional detachment, and a profound engagement with uncertainty and memory.
Early Life and Trauma
Richter's childhood was marked by the upheavals of Nazi Germany and World War II. His family experienced significant losses: maternal uncles died in combat, and his aunt Marianne (diagnosed with schizophrenia) was euthanized under the Nazi program. The bombing of Dresden left a lasting impression, as did postwar economic hardship and his father's disrupted career. Richter has described this period with mixed frustration and fondness, but the indirect exposure to violence, loss, and ideological extremism shaped a deep wariness of absolutes.
In 1961, he fled East Germany (where he trained in Socialist Realism) to the West, rejecting communist propaganda. These experiences fostered a lifelong aversion to dogma—Nazi, communist, or otherwise—evident in his statements about being "extremely allergic to intolerant political, ideological, or artistic statements."
Art as Processing Doubt and Memory
Richter's photo-paintings (beginning in the 1960s) often derive from family snapshots or media images, rendered with deliberate blurring. He has explained: "I blur to make everything equal, everything equally important and equally unimportant." Psychologically, this technique evokes the unreliability of memory, the transience of perception, and emotional distancing—protecting against painful clarity while acknowledging loss.
Works like Uncle Rudi (1965, a smiling Nazi uniform portrait) and Aunt Marianne (1965, cradling infant Richter) confront family complicity in Nazism and personal tragedy without judgment, creating ambiguity that mirrors postwar German amnesia and guilt.
The October 18, 1977 cycle (1988) depicts the Baader-Meinhof/RAF terrorists' deaths. In muted grays with increasing blur, these paintings grapple with ideological violence, youth idealism turned tragic, and national trauma. Richter, annoyed by polarized views in 1970s Germany, uses detachment to evoke mourning without endorsement—reflecting his own unresolved skepticism toward extremism.
Abstraction and Controlled Chance
From the 1970s onward, Richter's large-scale abstracts (using squeegees to scrape layers of paint) introduce chance and destruction. Visually gestural (echoing Abstract Expressionism), they remain intellectually controlled—undermining personal expression while allowing buried emotion to surface indirectly.
He has admitted concerns with "social malaise, psychological alienation, death, loss, and self-doubt" from his postwar youth. These works channel restrained emotion through process, avoiding direct catharsis.
Overall Psychological Profile
Richter exhibits traits of intellectual rigor, agnosticism (in art and life), and resilience amid historical trauma. His refusal of stylistic commitment and embrace of doubt—"Doubt is not a negative thing"—suggest a coping mechanism: ambiguity as defense against ideology's dangers and memory's pain. Yet his persistent painting affirms hope—"Art is the highest form of hope"—transforming personal and collective wounds into contemplative beauty.
This reading draws from Richter's interviews, biographies (e.g., Dietmar Elger's A Life in Painting), and critical analyses (e.g., Robert Storr), highlighting how his art sublimates unresolved grief into profound inquiry.
Early Life and Trauma
Richter's childhood was marked by the upheavals of Nazi Germany and World War II. His family experienced significant losses: maternal uncles died in combat, and his aunt Marianne (diagnosed with schizophrenia) was euthanized under the Nazi program. The bombing of Dresden left a lasting impression, as did postwar economic hardship and his father's disrupted career. Richter has described this period with mixed frustration and fondness, but the indirect exposure to violence, loss, and ideological extremism shaped a deep wariness of absolutes.
In 1961, he fled East Germany (where he trained in Socialist Realism) to the West, rejecting communist propaganda. These experiences fostered a lifelong aversion to dogma—Nazi, communist, or otherwise—evident in his statements about being "extremely allergic to intolerant political, ideological, or artistic statements."
Art as Processing Doubt and Memory
Richter's photo-paintings (beginning in the 1960s) often derive from family snapshots or media images, rendered with deliberate blurring. He has explained: "I blur to make everything equal, everything equally important and equally unimportant." Psychologically, this technique evokes the unreliability of memory, the transience of perception, and emotional distancing—protecting against painful clarity while acknowledging loss.
Works like Uncle Rudi (1965, a smiling Nazi uniform portrait) and Aunt Marianne (1965, cradling infant Richter) confront family complicity in Nazism and personal tragedy without judgment, creating ambiguity that mirrors postwar German amnesia and guilt.
The October 18, 1977 cycle (1988) depicts the Baader-Meinhof/RAF terrorists' deaths. In muted grays with increasing blur, these paintings grapple with ideological violence, youth idealism turned tragic, and national trauma. Richter, annoyed by polarized views in 1970s Germany, uses detachment to evoke mourning without endorsement—reflecting his own unresolved skepticism toward extremism.
Abstraction and Controlled Chance
From the 1970s onward, Richter's large-scale abstracts (using squeegees to scrape layers of paint) introduce chance and destruction. Visually gestural (echoing Abstract Expressionism), they remain intellectually controlled—undermining personal expression while allowing buried emotion to surface indirectly.
He has admitted concerns with "social malaise, psychological alienation, death, loss, and self-doubt" from his postwar youth. These works channel restrained emotion through process, avoiding direct catharsis.
Overall Psychological Profile
Richter exhibits traits of intellectual rigor, agnosticism (in art and life), and resilience amid historical trauma. His refusal of stylistic commitment and embrace of doubt—"Doubt is not a negative thing"—suggest a coping mechanism: ambiguity as defense against ideology's dangers and memory's pain. Yet his persistent painting affirms hope—"Art is the highest form of hope"—transforming personal and collective wounds into contemplative beauty.
This reading draws from Richter's interviews, biographies (e.g., Dietmar Elger's A Life in Painting), and critical analyses (e.g., Robert Storr), highlighting how his art sublimates unresolved grief into profound inquiry.
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. Afterward 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. Afterward 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.
Gerhard Richter's photo-paintings (often called Fotomalerei or photo-based paintings) form one of the most influential and sustained bodies of work in his oeuvre, spanning from the early 1960s through the 1980s and beyond in periodic revivals. These works represent his foundational exploration of the tension between photography and painting, questioning representation, memory, truth, and perception in a media-saturated postwar world.
Technique and Process
Richter begins by selecting a photographic source—typically banal, low-quality images from newspapers, magazines, family albums, postcards, or his own snapshots (compiled in his ongoing Atlas archive of over 800 sheets). He projects or traces the image onto canvas, then meticulously reproduces it in oil paint with photorealistic precision, often in grisaille (monochrome grays) or muted tones to echo the original's "ugly" or unartistic quality.
The defining intervention is the intentional blur, applied as the final step:
Key Themes and Evolution
Photo-paintings address banality, historical trauma, personal memory, and the mediated nature of experience:
Technique and Process
Richter begins by selecting a photographic source—typically banal, low-quality images from newspapers, magazines, family albums, postcards, or his own snapshots (compiled in his ongoing Atlas archive of over 800 sheets). He projects or traces the image onto canvas, then meticulously reproduces it in oil paint with photorealistic precision, often in grisaille (monochrome grays) or muted tones to echo the original's "ugly" or unartistic quality.
The defining intervention is the intentional blur, applied as the final step:
- Using soft, dry brushes (or sometimes light smearing with a brush or early tools), he drags horizontally or vertically across the surface—while the paint is still wet in parts or lightly on dry layers—to soften edges, dissolve details, and create hazy gradients.
- This produces effects mimicking photographic imperfections: motion blur, out-of-focus lenses, low-resolution reproduction, or atmospheric haze.
- Richter has famously explained: "I blur to make everything equally important and equally unimportant," neutralizing hierarchies, introducing emotional/temporal distance, and asserting painting's artificiality over photography's supposed objectivity.
- The result creates oscillation: up close, the surface reveals painterly marks and abstraction; from afar, it resolves into a coherent (yet mediated) image—emphasizing transience, memory, and the unreachability of the "real."
Key Themes and Evolution
Photo-paintings address banality, historical trauma, personal memory, and the mediated nature of experience:
- 1960s: Focus on found images—everyday scenes, celebrities, disasters, or military subjects—to highlight ugliness and indifference in mass media.
- 1970s: Shift toward personal/family snapshots, landscapes, and still lifes, with increasing color and nuance.
- 1980s onward: Includes politically charged series like October 18, 1977 (Baader-Meinhof), where blurring veils sensitive historical photos, and occasional returns to the mode alongside abstractions.
- Uncle Rudi (1965): A blurred portrait of Richter's uncle in Wehrmacht uniform from a family photo; horizontal streaks create distance and ambiguity around personal/historical guilt.
- Helga Matura with Her Fiancé (1966): Based on a newspaper photo of a murdered woman; heavy blur obscures details, evoking erasure, sensationalism, and mortality.
- Betty (1988, though rooted in earlier photo-painting practice): A vibrant, sharply rendered yet softly blurred portrait of his daughter turning away—symbolizing elusive identity and the past's hold on the present.
- Family in Snow (or similar family/group portraits): Soft, hazy blurs transform intimate snapshots into ghostly, dreamlike scenes of memory and loss.
- Landscapes/seascapes (e.g., from Corsica or German countryside series, late 1960s): Blurring heightens atmospheric sublime while questioning romanticized nature views.
1975 Seestück
2022 SOLD for $ 30M by Sotheby's
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 by Christie's on October 13, 2014 and for £ 10.4M by Sotheby's on July 28, 2020, lot 20.
In 1975 Gerhard Richter revisited his Seestück photo-painting series of 1969 by enlarging the canvas from a square 200 x 200 cm to a panoramic 200 x 300 cm. This extension to this larger size of the luminescent effect is a technical feat.
The out of focus of clouds and sea mingling through a faint horizon is an invite to the viewer to change his mind about visual perception. It is indeed.a step further by Richter in his quest of a personal total abstraction. The lack of focusing point within a monumental scale also leads to an illusion of movement and chance in the line of Riley's op art.
This new set is made of four paintings. One of them was sold for $ 30M by Sotheby's on May 16, 2022, lot 5.
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 by Christie's on October 13, 2014 and for £ 10.4M by Sotheby's on July 28, 2020, lot 20.
In 1975 Gerhard Richter revisited his Seestück photo-painting series of 1969 by enlarging the canvas from a square 200 x 200 cm to a panoramic 200 x 300 cm. This extension to this larger size of the luminescent effect is a technical feat.
The out of focus of clouds and sea mingling through a faint horizon is an invite to the viewer to change his mind about visual perception. It is indeed.a step further by Richter in his quest of a personal total abstraction. The lack of focusing point within a monumental scale also leads to an illusion of movement and chance in the line of Riley's op art.
This new set is made of four paintings. One of them was sold for $ 30M by Sotheby's on May 16, 2022, lot 5.
Special Report
Squeegee Technique
The squeegee technique—Gerhard Richter's signature method for creating his large-scale abstract paintings (Abstraktes Bild series)—originated in the late 1970s to early 1980s as he transitioned more decisively into abstraction after years of photorealist and conceptual work.
Richter first experimented with a squeegee (or doctor blade-like tool) around 1980. One of the earliest documented examples is an oil-on-canvas painting simply titled Abstract Painting from that year, where he began using the device to apply, drag, scrape, and remove paint in broad bands across the canvas. This marked a deliberate shift away from traditional brushwork toward a more mechanical, chance-driven process.
The tool itself is typically a homemade or modified squeegee—often a large rectangular piece of wood, Perspex (acrylic), or plastic with a rubber or straight edge—rather than a standard window-cleaning squeegee. Richter applies thick layers of oil paint in different colors to the canvas (sometimes with broad brushes first), then drags the squeegee across the surface in sweeping horizontal, vertical, or diagonal movements. This action simultaneously:
Richter developed the squeegee partly in response to art-historical debates:
Richter first experimented with a squeegee (or doctor blade-like tool) around 1980. One of the earliest documented examples is an oil-on-canvas painting simply titled Abstract Painting from that year, where he began using the device to apply, drag, scrape, and remove paint in broad bands across the canvas. This marked a deliberate shift away from traditional brushwork toward a more mechanical, chance-driven process.
The tool itself is typically a homemade or modified squeegee—often a large rectangular piece of wood, Perspex (acrylic), or plastic with a rubber or straight edge—rather than a standard window-cleaning squeegee. Richter applies thick layers of oil paint in different colors to the canvas (sometimes with broad brushes first), then drags the squeegee across the surface in sweeping horizontal, vertical, or diagonal movements. This action simultaneously:
- Spreads and mixes fresh paint
- Scrapes away or thins areas to reveal underlying layers
- Creates unpredictable streaks, veils, smears, and accidental revelations of buried colors
- Produces effects of depth, luminosity, and blurred motion that evoke landscapes, atmospheres, or pure optical phenomena without literal representation
- Late 1970s: Richter had already begun exploring abstraction (e.g., gray monochromes and color charts in the 1970s), but his work remained tied to photographic sources or grid-based systems. He sought ways to eliminate direct gestural control and introduce indeterminacy.
- 1980: First consistent use of the squeegee in abstraction, as noted in catalogues and scholarship. This allowed him to distance himself from the "expressive" hand of Abstract Expressionism (e.g., Pollock or de Kooning) while still engaging with gesture and materiality—Richter has described it as a way to "let the paint do what it wants" and embrace chance within a controlled framework.
- Mid-1980s onward: The technique matured rapidly. By 1986 (the breakthrough year), Richter had refined it for monumental canvases, building multiple layers and achieving complex chromatic interactions. It became his dominant method for abstraction through the 1990s and beyond.
Richter developed the squeegee partly in response to art-historical debates:
- A critique/rejection of heroic Abstract Expressionist gesture (seen as overly romantic or subjective).
- An engagement with chance operations (echoing John Cage, Marcel Duchamp, or Fluxus), but applied within painting.
- A counter to the Neo-Expressionist wave in 1980s Germany (e.g., Baselitz, Kiefer), where Richter's method introduced a cooler, more industrial or mechanical quality.
- Parallels to other artists experimenting with tools for abstraction (e.g., some process painters or even earlier uses of blades in printmaking/painting), though Richter's large-scale, layered application was distinctive and became uniquely identified with him.
Gerhard Richter and Jackson Pollock represent two pivotal figures in 20th- and 21st-century abstraction, yet their approaches, philosophies, and historical contexts diverge profoundly—despite Richter's acknowledged debt to Pollock as a transformative influence.
Shared Elements: Process, Chance, and Gesture
Both artists prioritize the act of painting itself over preconceived representation:
Key Differences: Intention, Emotion, and Context
Despite visual and procedural affinities, Richter fundamentally subverts Pollock's ethos:
Shared Elements: Process, Chance, and Gesture
Both artists prioritize the act of painting itself over preconceived representation:
- Pollock's revolutionary drip technique (action painting, 1947–1950s) involved pouring, flinging, and dripping enamel and oil onto horizontal canvases laid on the floor. He moved around the work in a choreographed, full-body performance, embracing spontaneity, gravity, and accident to create all-over compositions of rhythmic lines, webs, and energy fields. The process revealed unconscious impulses and physical presence, embodying Abstract Expressionism's emphasis on raw emotion, immediacy, and existential authenticity.
- Richter's mature abstractions (from the mid-1980s onward, especially the Abstraktes Bild series) employ the squeegee—a broad, rigid tool dragged across layered oil paint—to scrape, smear, reveal, and obscure strata of color. Like Pollock, he introduces chance and relinquishes full control: the squeegee creates unpredictable drags, bleeds, and revelations as paint resists or yields. Richter has described this as a dialogue between intention and accident, echoing Pollock's collaboration with chance.
Key Differences: Intention, Emotion, and Context
Despite visual and procedural affinities, Richter fundamentally subverts Pollock's ethos:
- Emotional vs. Detached Expression — Pollock's drips channeled heroic, instinctive, often tormented emotion—raw energy, subconscious drive, and a sense of transcendence or crisis. His works assert presence, immediacy, and the artist's psyche as central. Richter, emerging from a postwar German context of doubt, media saturation, and historical trauma, rejects "heroic" expression. His abstractions are cooler, more analytical, and mediated: chance is orchestrated within deliberate layers, and the result often feels artificial, decorative, or ironic rather than ecstatic. Richter has critiqued the outdated "heroism" of Abstract Expressionism (including Pollock), viewing it as incompatible with a photographic, skeptical era.
- Technique and Control — Pollock's method was performative and direct—paint flung in real time, building density through accumulation. Richter builds in stages: multiple layers dry partially, then the squeegee intervenes mechanically, erasing and revealing in a calculated disruption. Where Pollock's gesture is additive and expressive, Richter's is subtractive and deconstructive—more akin to a "Willem de Kooning with a squeegee" than pure action painting.
- Philosophical Stance — Pollock sought authenticity through unmediated gesture in a pre-media age. Richter questions painting's validity post-photography and Pop Art (he admired Warhol and Lichtenstein alongside Pollock). His abstractions oscillate between beauty and banality, making "everything equally important and unimportant." They synthesize Abstract Expressionism's gestural energy with Pop's detachment and Conceptualism's skepticism—positioned in the "gap" between the two movements rather than fully embracing either.
- Historical Role — Pollock epitomized mid-century American modernism's triumph of abstraction as liberation. Richter, working decades later, revives gestural abstraction in a postmodern context—problematizing it, playing in its "ruins," and demonstrating painting's continued relevance through irony and doubt rather than assertion.
Willem de Kooning's influence on Gerhard Richter is significant but indirect and ambivalent—more a matter of reference, admiration from afar, and deliberate subversion than straightforward emulation. De Kooning (1904–1997), a Dutch-born American Abstract Expressionist, epitomized gestural abstraction through his fluid, aggressive brushwork, layered surfaces, and oscillation between figuration and abstraction (e.g., his Woman series of the 1950s or late 1970s–1980s paintings with sweeping, luminous strokes and vibrant, fleshy palettes). His process involved building up and scraping down paint in a dynamic, improvisational dialogue with the canvas—often wet-on-wet layering, erasure, and revelation—that conveyed raw physicality, eroticism, and existential struggle.
Richter encountered de Kooning's work (alongside Pollock and others) during his pivotal 1959 visit to Documenta II in Kassel, an experience that shattered his Socialist Realist training and catalyzed his move toward Western modernism after defecting to West Germany in 1961. De Kooning's virtuosic handling of paint—whiplash lines, sweeping gestures, and the tension between control and accident—resonated with Richter as a model of painting's materiality and process-driven vitality. Critics and observers frequently draw parallels, describing Richter's mature abstractions (from the mid-1980s onward) as evoking de Kooning "with a squeegee": both artists layer paint thickly, allow forms to emerge through scraping or dragging, and create textured, luminous surfaces where colors bleed, overlap, and reveal hidden strata.
Key points of comparison and influence include:
Richter encountered de Kooning's work (alongside Pollock and others) during his pivotal 1959 visit to Documenta II in Kassel, an experience that shattered his Socialist Realist training and catalyzed his move toward Western modernism after defecting to West Germany in 1961. De Kooning's virtuosic handling of paint—whiplash lines, sweeping gestures, and the tension between control and accident—resonated with Richter as a model of painting's materiality and process-driven vitality. Critics and observers frequently draw parallels, describing Richter's mature abstractions (from the mid-1980s onward) as evoking de Kooning "with a squeegee": both artists layer paint thickly, allow forms to emerge through scraping or dragging, and create textured, luminous surfaces where colors bleed, overlap, and reveal hidden strata.
Key points of comparison and influence include:
- Process and Revelation — De Kooning built compositions through additive/subtractive cycles—painting furiously, then scraping or overpainting to excavate forms (as in works like Excavation (1950) or mid-1970s large-scale abstractions with epic loops and bold strokes). Richter's squeegee technique mirrors this subtractive aspect: he applies multiple layers of oil, lets them partially dry, then drags the tool to erase, smear, and uncover vibrant underpainting in unpredictable ways. This shared emphasis on chance within structure—where the artist sets conditions but yields to the medium—echoes de Kooning's collaboration with paint's natural properties.
- Gesture and Materiality — De Kooning's sweeping, bodily gestures assert presence and immediacy. Richter's broad drags produce similar directional energy and painterly drama (e.g., sweeping bands, textured contrasts), yet mediated by the tool's mechanical flatness rather than the hand's direct expressivity.
- Oscillation Between Modes — Both artists navigated figuration and abstraction fluidly: de Kooning famously returned to the figure amid abstraction's dominance; Richter pursued photorealist photo-paintings alongside emerging abstractions, blurring boundaries.
- De Kooning's work embodies heroic, emotive immediacy—tied to the artist's psyche, physicality, and a sense of struggle or sublimity. Richter rejects this "heroic" stance as outdated in a photographic, media-saturated world, favoring detachment, irony, and doubt. His abstractions feel cooler, more artificial, and post-conceptual—prioritizing perceptual ambiguity over emotional catharsis.
- Where de Kooning's gestures are spontaneous and additive, Richter's are orchestrated and subtractive, introducing greater aleatory distance. Critics note that Richter's surfaces achieve cohesion through chance rather than de Kooning's fluid integration of forms, colors, and textures.
- Richter has described early reactions to his own abstractions (circa 1980) as viewing them as "sloppy travesties" of Abstract Expressionism—implicitly measuring them against de Kooning's mastery, yet proceeding anyway to redefine the medium through mediation.
1986
Intro
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.
By this aspect, Schwefel is a precursor of the Abstraktes Bild 599, oil on canvas 300 x 250 cm painted in 1986, in which Richter adds the confrontation of horizontal and vertical. 599 was sold for £ 30.4M by Sotheby's on February 10, 2015.
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.
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.
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.
By this aspect, Schwefel is a precursor of the Abstraktes Bild 599, oil on canvas 300 x 250 cm painted in 1986, in which Richter adds the confrontation of horizontal and vertical. 599 was sold for £ 30.4M by Sotheby's on February 10, 2015.
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.
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.
1986 Abstraktes Bild by Richter. Define the breakthrough of that specific year. Compare 4 paintings : AB 596 (sold by Sotheby's on March 1, 2023, lot 112) ; AB 599 (sold by Sotheby's on February 10, 2015, lot 37) ; AB 604 aka Claudius (passed at Christie's on October 19, 2008) ; AB 612-4 aka Still (sold by Sotheby's on November 17, 2016, lot 13). Explain the titles Claudius and Still.
1986 marked a pivotal breakthrough year for Gerhard Richter's abstract paintings. This was the period when he fully embraced and refined his signature squeegee technique for creating large-scale abstractions. Richter shifted away from brushes toward using a squeegee (or doctor blade) to drag, scrape, and layer oil paint across the canvas in sweeping, chance-infused gestures. This method produced dynamic, luminous surfaces with overlapping bands of color, blurred edges, veils of pigment, and accidental revelations of underlying layers—creating effects that evoke landscapes, atmospheric phenomena, or pure optical sensations without representational intent. 1986 is frequently described in auction catalogues and art commentary as the apex or peak of Richter's career breakthrough in abstraction, where he achieved monumental scale, compositional complexity, and a mature mastery of the squeegee process that defined his most celebrated abstract works.
These paintings from 1986 are part of the "Abstraktes Bild" (Abstract Painting) series, often catalogued with numbers from Richter's official catalogue raisonné (Dietmar Elger's volumes).Here is a comparison of the four specified paintings, all executed in oil on canvas in 1986 using the squeegee technique:
1986 marked a pivotal breakthrough year for Gerhard Richter's abstract paintings. This was the period when he fully embraced and refined his signature squeegee technique for creating large-scale abstractions. Richter shifted away from brushes toward using a squeegee (or doctor blade) to drag, scrape, and layer oil paint across the canvas in sweeping, chance-infused gestures. This method produced dynamic, luminous surfaces with overlapping bands of color, blurred edges, veils of pigment, and accidental revelations of underlying layers—creating effects that evoke landscapes, atmospheric phenomena, or pure optical sensations without representational intent. 1986 is frequently described in auction catalogues and art commentary as the apex or peak of Richter's career breakthrough in abstraction, where he achieved monumental scale, compositional complexity, and a mature mastery of the squeegee process that defined his most celebrated abstract works.
These paintings from 1986 are part of the "Abstraktes Bild" (Abstract Painting) series, often catalogued with numbers from Richter's official catalogue raisonné (Dietmar Elger's volumes).Here is a comparison of the four specified paintings, all executed in oil on canvas in 1986 using the squeegee technique:
- AB 596 (also known as Abstraktes Bild, 1986): A large diptych (two-panel work), measuring approximately 260 x 400 cm overall. It features bold, sweeping horizontal and vertical drags of vibrant colors (reds, yellows, blues, and whites) with strong contrasts and layered depth. Sold at Sotheby's London on March 1, 2023 (Modern & Contemporary Evening Auction, lot 112) for £24,179,000 (including fees; hammer likely around £20-22 million). It is considered one of the great monumental examples from this breakthrough year, emphasizing scale and dramatic color interactions.
- AB 599 (Abstraktes Bild, 1986): A massive single-canvas work, 300.5 x 250.5 cm. It showcases Richter's technique at its most explosive and record-setting: thick, luminous layers of red, yellow, green, and blue with dramatic squeegee streaks revealing buried colors beneath. This painting achieved Richter's auction record (at the time) when sold at Sotheby's London on February 10, 2015 (Contemporary Art Evening Auction, lot 37) for £30,389,000 (approximately $46.3 million). It remains one of the most iconic and valuable from 1986, celebrated for its scale, chromatic intensity, and "calculated chaos."
- AB 604 aka Claudius (Abstraktes Bild / Claudius, 1986): A very large-scale diptych or multi-panel format, 311 x 406 cm. It features expansive, atmospheric layers with softer transitions in places, dominant blues/greens, and vertical/horizontal squeegee marks creating a sense of depth and movement. It passed (did not sell) at Christie's on October 19, 2008. The title "Claudius" stands out as a rare non-numeric name in Richter's abstracts (which are usually just "Abstraktes Bild" + number). Richter occasionally gave specific titles to abstracts, but no definitive public explanation ties "Claudius" to a clear reference (e.g., the Roman emperor, a personal name, or literary allusion). It may be arbitrary or private, consistent with Richter's view that titles are not meant to dictate interpretation—his abstracts resist narrative or symbolic over-reading.
- AB 612-4 aka Still (Abstraktes Bild / Still, 1986): Measuring approximately 225 x 200 cm (88 1/2 x 78 3/4 in.). It displays Richter's layered, scraped surfaces with a relatively restrained palette and vertical drags, evoking a sense of frozen motion or stasis amid the abstraction. Sold at Sotheby's on November 17, 2016 (Contemporary Art Evening Auction, lot 13) with a high estimate (pre-sale 20-30 million USD range). The title "Still" (German for "quiet," "calm," or "still" as in motionless) likely refers to the work's more subdued energy compared to more turbulent 1986 abstracts—suggesting a moment of pause, silence, or contemplative stillness within the chaotic process. Richter has described his abstracts as capturing fleeting appearances or the "impossibility" of fixed meaning, so "Still" may poetically evoke that arrested quality.
1
AB 596
2023 SOLD for £ 24M by Sotheby's
Nothing is left to chance in the evolution of the art of Gerhard Richter until its culmination in 1986 with the full control of the squeegee in monumental format, incredibly mingling chaos and order.
His first experience in 260 x 400 cm is made of four Abstrakte Bilder in 1982, opuses 492 to 495. Gelbgrün, the 492, was sold for £ 10.9M on March 9, 2018, lot 28. It is made of two joined canvases 260 x 200 cm each, certainly for some practical convenience. It was just before the color spectrum exploration of the Kerzen, series 497 to 499.
In the same format as 492, the Abstraktes Bild 596 of 1986 is a synthesis of Richter's inspiration and influences and more generally a synthesis of abstract painting. He would convincingly say later : "Pictures always represent something they are not. We also read abstract pictures, we search to find out what is depicted. Just color, that would be boring."
The very large size enables an immersion of the viewer in the picture, which had been the thread line of the art of Mark Rothko.
The first layer of paint, not completely canceled by the subsequent work, is a photo-realistic picture from the earlier style of Richter, also in memory of the hidden figures of unquestionably Jackson Pollock and arguably also Jasper Johns.
The final mingling of colors brought by the squeegee is a tribute to Monet's Grandes Décorations, It is not by chance that Richter had titled Orangerie one of his first four large size trials in 1982, opus 495. Its energy also reminds Franz Kline's Action painting.
The junction of the two canvases in painted darker. 636, a follower in the same format painted in 1987, has it as a sort of zip which is unquestionably a tribute to Barnett Newman and arguably also to the lightnings of Clyfford Still. 636 was sold for $ 32M by Sotheby's on November 14, 2018, lot 8.
This influence could explain why the Abstraktes Bild 612-4 of 1986, a single canvas 225 x 200 cm, was titled Still. It was sold for $ 34M by Sotheby's on November 17, 2016, lot 13.
596 was sold for by Sotheby's for $ 9.8M on November 14, 2007, lot 21, and for £ 24M on March 1, 2023, lot 112. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
His first experience in 260 x 400 cm is made of four Abstrakte Bilder in 1982, opuses 492 to 495. Gelbgrün, the 492, was sold for £ 10.9M on March 9, 2018, lot 28. It is made of two joined canvases 260 x 200 cm each, certainly for some practical convenience. It was just before the color spectrum exploration of the Kerzen, series 497 to 499.
In the same format as 492, the Abstraktes Bild 596 of 1986 is a synthesis of Richter's inspiration and influences and more generally a synthesis of abstract painting. He would convincingly say later : "Pictures always represent something they are not. We also read abstract pictures, we search to find out what is depicted. Just color, that would be boring."
The very large size enables an immersion of the viewer in the picture, which had been the thread line of the art of Mark Rothko.
The first layer of paint, not completely canceled by the subsequent work, is a photo-realistic picture from the earlier style of Richter, also in memory of the hidden figures of unquestionably Jackson Pollock and arguably also Jasper Johns.
The final mingling of colors brought by the squeegee is a tribute to Monet's Grandes Décorations, It is not by chance that Richter had titled Orangerie one of his first four large size trials in 1982, opus 495. Its energy also reminds Franz Kline's Action painting.
The junction of the two canvases in painted darker. 636, a follower in the same format painted in 1987, has it as a sort of zip which is unquestionably a tribute to Barnett Newman and arguably also to the lightnings of Clyfford Still. 636 was sold for $ 32M by Sotheby's on November 14, 2018, lot 8.
This influence could explain why the Abstraktes Bild 612-4 of 1986, a single canvas 225 x 200 cm, was titled Still. It was sold for $ 34M by Sotheby's on November 17, 2016, lot 13.
596 was sold for by Sotheby's for $ 9.8M on November 14, 2007, lot 21, and for £ 24M on March 1, 2023, lot 112. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
2
AB 599
2015 SOLD for £ 30.4M by Sotheby's
In 1986 Gerhard Richter redefines abstract art. He 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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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 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.
1987 AB 636
2023 SOLD for $ 35M by Phillips
Gerhard Richter increasingly masters his technique from the moment he applies oil paint in translucent layers with a wide squeegee. The mixing between the wet layers provides a detailed and complete chromatic range. Large gestures with the rake generate vertical and oblique lines of tension. The skill of the artist leads him to create very large formats.
On November 14, 2018, Sotheby's sold for $ 32M Abstraktes Bild 636, diptych of total size 260 x 400 cm painted in 1987, lot 8. Please watch the video shared by the auction house. It was sold for $ 35M by Phillips on November 14, 2023, lot 34.
The image is dominated by irregular vertical lines in light shades. An ascending and descending oblique pattern ensures the texture. Partially masked by this pattern, an incandescent zone remains more visible at the bottom of the left side.
AB 636 is an abstract work without identification of a naturalistic inspiration. With the domination of verticals, it is however tempting to see the edge of a forest lit by the sun, after Cézanne or Shishkin.
Grok thought from a 2018 tweet :
Quote
Sotheby's @Sothebys Nov 12, 2018
In this episode of Masterworks: Expert Voices, watch as Grégoire Billault, our Head of Contemporary Art, explores Gerhard Richter’s monumental ‘Abstraktes Bild’, a highlight of our Contemporary Art Evening Auction on 14 November in #NYC
On November 14, 2018, Sotheby's sold for $ 32M Abstraktes Bild 636, diptych of total size 260 x 400 cm painted in 1987, lot 8. Please watch the video shared by the auction house. It was sold for $ 35M by Phillips on November 14, 2023, lot 34.
The image is dominated by irregular vertical lines in light shades. An ascending and descending oblique pattern ensures the texture. Partially masked by this pattern, an incandescent zone remains more visible at the bottom of the left side.
AB 636 is an abstract work without identification of a naturalistic inspiration. With the domination of verticals, it is however tempting to see the edge of a forest lit by the sun, after Cézanne or Shishkin.
Grok thought from a 2018 tweet :
Quote
Sotheby's @Sothebys Nov 12, 2018
In this episode of Masterworks: Expert Voices, watch as Grégoire Billault, our Head of Contemporary Art, explores Gerhard Richter’s monumental ‘Abstraktes Bild’, a highlight of our Contemporary Art Evening Auction on 14 November in #NYC
- Sotheby's 2018 post promotes a video interview with Grégoire Billault discussing Gerhard Richter's 1987 diptych "Abstraktes Bild," a 10-foot-wide abstract work created by squeegeeing layers of oil paint, symbolizing Richter's exploration of chance and control in post-war German art.
- Richter, born in 1932 in Dresden, shifted from photorealism to abstraction in the 1960s; this piece, from his signature "Abstraktes Bild" series, reflects his technique of scraping paint to mimic photographic blur, evoking emotional ambiguity amid Europe's historical trauma.
- The painting sold for $32 million at the November 14, 2018, New York auction—exceeding estimates and marking its market debut—contributing to a $362 million total sale that set records for African American artists like Jacob Lawrence.
1987 AB 648-3
2014 SOLD for $ 31.5M by Christie's
The Abstraktes Bild 648-3 is a magnificent synthesis of the application by Richter of his whole range of processing. It is part of a series of four, began together for being processed in parallel according to the intuitions of the artist.
The place for chance in Richter's abstractions may be debated at length. He controls throughout the lengthy process his goal for the final effect while the inner layers are gradually canceled. The chance brought by his gesture in each iteration is partly erased at the next intervention. The squeegee cancels the emotion of the punctuations brought by the brush.
648-3 displays brilliant colors on a medium-width canvas 225 x 200 cm. The application of the brush in wet on wet increases the range of colors. Despite tentative maritime or biomorphic interpretations, this work is certainly fully abstract.
This opus was sold for $ 31.5M from a lower estimate of $ 20M by Christie's on November 12, 2014, lot 37.
The place for chance in Richter's abstractions may be debated at length. He controls throughout the lengthy process his goal for the final effect while the inner layers are gradually canceled. The chance brought by his gesture in each iteration is partly erased at the next intervention. The squeegee cancels the emotion of the punctuations brought by the brush.
648-3 displays brilliant colors on a medium-width canvas 225 x 200 cm. The application of the brush in wet on wet increases the range of colors. Despite tentative maritime or biomorphic interpretations, this work is certainly fully abstract.
This opus was sold for $ 31.5M from a lower estimate of $ 20M by Christie's on November 12, 2014, lot 37.
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.
Grok thought :
Quote
Sotheby's @Sothebys Nov 16, 2021
#AuctionUpdate: Gerhard Richter’s towering ‘Abstraktes Bild’ from 1993 fetches $33M.
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.
Grok thought :
Quote
Sotheby's @Sothebys Nov 16, 2021
#AuctionUpdate: Gerhard Richter’s towering ‘Abstraktes Bild’ from 1993 fetches $33M.
- Sotheby's post highlights the $33 million sale of Gerhard Richter's 1993 oil-on-canvas "Abstraktes Bild (797-2)," a 240x240 cm square abstract featuring layered reds, greens, and blues created via his signature squeegee technique for unpredictable textures.
- The painting sold on November 15, 2021, during the Macklowe Collection auction at Sotheby's New York, which achieved a record $676 million total, reflecting Richter's status as a top living artist with abstracts dominating high-end sales.
- Provenance traces from Marian Goodman Gallery to the Macklowes in 2005; the work toured Australian exhibitions in 1998-2000, embodying Richter's exploration of chance and control in post-war abstraction.
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.
Grok thought about the 2012 sale :
Quote
AP Entertainment @APEntertainment Oct 13, 2023
ON THIS DAY: In 2012, Eric Clapton raised $34.2 million for his Crossroads Centre rehabilitation facility by selling a Gerhard Richter painting from his collection. #OnThisDay
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.
Grok thought about the 2012 sale :
Quote
AP Entertainment @APEntertainment Oct 13, 2023
ON THIS DAY: In 2012, Eric Clapton raised $34.2 million for his Crossroads Centre rehabilitation facility by selling a Gerhard Richter painting from his collection. #OnThisDay
- Eric Clapton's 2012 auction of Gerhard Richter's "Abstraktes Bild (809-4)" fetched $34.2 million at Sotheby's, setting a record for the artist at the time and funding expansions for his Antigua-based Crossroads Centre rehab facility, founded in 1998 amid his personal recovery from decades of substance abuse.
- The painting, acquired by Clapton in 2001 for $3.4 million, appreciated over tenfold in value within 11 years, highlighting Richter's rising market dominance in abstract expressionism, with subsequent sales like Clapton's 2016 Richter piece reaching $22 million.
- Accompanying AP video footage captures the London auction energy, the vibrant green-hued canvas, and Crossroads testimonials, underscoring how Clapton's art patronage intersects with his philanthropy for addiction treatment, having treated over 5,000 patients since inception.
1997 AB 849-1
2023 SOLD for $ 32M by Sotheby's
The Abstraktes Bild 849 by Richter is made of three elements painted in 1997.
849-1, oil on canvas 275 x 275 cm painted by Richter in 1997, was sold for $ 32M from a lower estimate of $ 25M by Sotheby's on November 15, 2023, lot 125. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
The artist applied his squeegee with bright color in intense gesture reminding the physical painting actions by Pollock, Shiraga or Klein. The result is a complex composition of horizontal and vertical strikes that also reveal the underneath colors through crevices.
849-3, oil on canvas 260 x 340 cm, was sold for $ 21M by Sotheby's on November 9, 2011, lot 33.
849-1, oil on canvas 275 x 275 cm painted by Richter in 1997, was sold for $ 32M from a lower estimate of $ 25M by Sotheby's on November 15, 2023, lot 125. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
The artist applied his squeegee with bright color in intense gesture reminding the physical painting actions by Pollock, Shiraga or Klein. The result is a complex composition of horizontal and vertical strikes that also reveal the underneath colors through crevices.
849-3, oil on canvas 260 x 340 cm, was sold for $ 21M by Sotheby's on November 9, 2011, lot 33.
