Sale: 612 / Evening Sale, Dec. 04. 2026 in Munich → Lot 126000956
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Raumbeispiel
126000956
Gerhard Richter
Fuji, 1996.
Oil on Alucobond
Estimate:
€ 350,000 - 450,000
$ 406,000 - 522,000
Information on buyer's premium, taxation and resale right compensation will be available four weeks before the auction.
126000956
Gerhard Richter
Fuji, 1996.
Oil on Alucobond
Estimate:
€ 350,000 - 450,000
$ 406,000 - 522,000
Information on buyer's premium, taxation and resale right compensation will be available four weeks before the auction.
Gerhard Richter
1932
Fuji. 1996.
Oil on Alucobond.
Signed and with the edition label inscribed with the work number “839/54” on the reverse. 29 x 37 cm (11.4 x 14.5 in).
Part of the famous eponymous series that Richter created for the exhibition of the same name at the Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich. These works were sold immediately after the exhibition through Galerie Fred Jahn, Munich. Richter created the paintings in the “Fuji” series partly in portrait and partly in landscape format, each as a unique piece using the same color composition. Each painting differs not only in the proportions of its color components but also in its highly variable color gradients, created with the squeegee. [JS].
• HIGHLIGHT: From his mature “Abstract Paintings”, which solely feature the squeegee as the dominant element.
• CALCULATION & CHANCE: Richter as the creator of a radically new painterly aesthetic.
• MAXIMUM PERFECTION: The “Fuji” series celebrates the dawn of Richter’s iconic squeegee technique.
• EXHIBITED: Created for the eponymous exhibition at the Lenbachhaus in Munich.
• HONORS: Retrospectives at, among others, MoMA, New York (2002); the Tate, London (2013/14); the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (2020); and the Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris (2025/26).
PROVENANCE: Galerie Fred Jahn, Munich (directly from the artist).
Galerie Leidel, Munich.
Private collection, Southern Germany (acquired from the above in 2014).
EXHIBITION: Gerhard Richter, Fuji, Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich, 1997.
LITERATURE: Dietmar Elger, Gerhard Richter. Catalogue raisonné, vol. 5: 1994–2006 (nos. 806–899–8), Berlin 2019, CR no. 839–54 (illustrated top left in the second studio photo on p. 209 alongside other paintings from the series).
-
(selection)
Dietmar Elger, Gerhard Richter. Painter, Cologne 2002, p. 335.
Gerhard Richter, exhibition catalog K20 Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf 2005 (with illustration; two other paintings from the series).
Hubertus Butin, Stefan Gronert, and Philipp Olbricht (eds.), Gerhard Richter. Editions 1965–2013. Catalogue Raisonné, Ostfildern 2014, cat. no. 89, p. 260 (with illustration, pp. 44 and 260, another painting from the series).
Dietmar Elger, Gerhard Richter. Painter, Tokyo 2017, illu. on p. 270 (another painting from the series).
Hubertus Butin, Gerhard Richter. Unikate in Serie / Unique Pieces in Series, Cologne 2017, pp. 132, 136 (with illu. on pp. 138–139, two other paintings from the series).
Kerstin Küster, Color and Layering. Abstract Paintings 1986–2005, in: Gerhard Richter. Abstraction, exhibition catalog, Museum Barberini, Potsdam 2018, p. 173.
"Continuing its tradition of landmark monographic exhibitions devoted to leading figures of 20th and 21st-century art – including Jean-Michel Basquiat, Joan Mitchell, Mark Rothko, and David Hockney – the Fondation [Louis Vuitton] dedicates all its galleries to Gerhard Richter, widely regarded as one of the most important and internationally celebrated artists of his generation."
Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris, on the exhibition "Gerhard Richter" (Oct. 2025 to March 2026), https://www.fondationlouisvuitton.fr/en/events/gerhard-richter-exhibition.
1932
Fuji. 1996.
Oil on Alucobond.
Signed and with the edition label inscribed with the work number “839/54” on the reverse. 29 x 37 cm (11.4 x 14.5 in).
Part of the famous eponymous series that Richter created for the exhibition of the same name at the Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich. These works were sold immediately after the exhibition through Galerie Fred Jahn, Munich. Richter created the paintings in the “Fuji” series partly in portrait and partly in landscape format, each as a unique piece using the same color composition. Each painting differs not only in the proportions of its color components but also in its highly variable color gradients, created with the squeegee. [JS].
• HIGHLIGHT: From his mature “Abstract Paintings”, which solely feature the squeegee as the dominant element.
• CALCULATION & CHANCE: Richter as the creator of a radically new painterly aesthetic.
• MAXIMUM PERFECTION: The “Fuji” series celebrates the dawn of Richter’s iconic squeegee technique.
• EXHIBITED: Created for the eponymous exhibition at the Lenbachhaus in Munich.
• HONORS: Retrospectives at, among others, MoMA, New York (2002); the Tate, London (2013/14); the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (2020); and the Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris (2025/26).
PROVENANCE: Galerie Fred Jahn, Munich (directly from the artist).
Galerie Leidel, Munich.
Private collection, Southern Germany (acquired from the above in 2014).
EXHIBITION: Gerhard Richter, Fuji, Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich, 1997.
LITERATURE: Dietmar Elger, Gerhard Richter. Catalogue raisonné, vol. 5: 1994–2006 (nos. 806–899–8), Berlin 2019, CR no. 839–54 (illustrated top left in the second studio photo on p. 209 alongside other paintings from the series).
-
(selection)
Dietmar Elger, Gerhard Richter. Painter, Cologne 2002, p. 335.
Gerhard Richter, exhibition catalog K20 Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf 2005 (with illustration; two other paintings from the series).
Hubertus Butin, Stefan Gronert, and Philipp Olbricht (eds.), Gerhard Richter. Editions 1965–2013. Catalogue Raisonné, Ostfildern 2014, cat. no. 89, p. 260 (with illustration, pp. 44 and 260, another painting from the series).
Dietmar Elger, Gerhard Richter. Painter, Tokyo 2017, illu. on p. 270 (another painting from the series).
Hubertus Butin, Gerhard Richter. Unikate in Serie / Unique Pieces in Series, Cologne 2017, pp. 132, 136 (with illu. on pp. 138–139, two other paintings from the series).
Kerstin Küster, Color and Layering. Abstract Paintings 1986–2005, in: Gerhard Richter. Abstraction, exhibition catalog, Museum Barberini, Potsdam 2018, p. 173.
"Continuing its tradition of landmark monographic exhibitions devoted to leading figures of 20th and 21st-century art – including Jean-Michel Basquiat, Joan Mitchell, Mark Rothko, and David Hockney – the Fondation [Louis Vuitton] dedicates all its galleries to Gerhard Richter, widely regarded as one of the most important and internationally celebrated artists of his generation."
Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris, on the exhibition "Gerhard Richter" (Oct. 2025 to March 2026), https://www.fondationlouisvuitton.fr/en/events/gerhard-richter-exhibition.
The paintings in the landmark “Fuji” series celebrate the dawn of Richter’s iconic squeegee technique—which has dominated his painterly practice since the late 1980s—as he took it to new heights of technical perfection. With reference to the Japanese volcano, Richter, having reached the pinnacle of “calculated chance”, impressively demonstrates the wide variety of his squeegee technique through the combination of red, green, and white in this series, creating abstract color landscapes of outstanding quality and density. Enveloped in the gentle blur of the squeegee, these works—in keeping with the title of the famous series—evoke associations with traditional Asian landscape painting: skies, mountains, and reflections on the water. Moreover, the paintings in the “Fuji” series—as seen in the present, particularly in their accentuated, dense composition—also display a volcanic glow, with colors ranging from red to brilliant orange. In “Fuji”, Richter not only struck a perfect balance between focus and blur, depth and surface, as well as light and dark, but also—through his choice of a smooth, metallic support—masterfully elevated his painting to a new technical level by opting for a thin aluminum panel, known as Alucobond, rather than canvas as he had done previously. Richter exploits the material's properties, using greater pressure with the squeegee to achieve technical perfection, allowing the oil paints to blend on the hard, smooth surface. Unlike on canvas, the aluminum surface has nothing to interfere with the blending of the colors or the color gradients applied in multiple layers with the squeegee—no fabric texture, no stretcher bars, and no canvas edges that rise from folding and become visible in the final color scheme. The result is a painting impressive in both technical and aesthetic terms; while bearing no obvious signs of its manual creation process, it nonetheless embodies, in all its perfection and clarity, the unmistakable painterly signature of the artist of the century, Gerhard Richter. [JS]
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