Sale: 452 / A private collection, Dec. 10. 2016 in Munich Lot 781

 

781
Gerhard Richter
Ohne Titel, 1992.
Color photograph
Estimate:
€ 40,000 / $ 43,200
Sold:
€ 150,000 / $ 162,000

(incl. surcharge)
Ohne Titel. 1992.
Oil over Color photograph, original on backing board.
Upper left signed and dated "Jan. 92". Once more signed and dated "4. Januar 1992" on verso of backing board. On photo paper. 50 x 33.3 cm (19.6 x 13.1 in). Backing board: 76,8 x 56 cm (30,2 x 22 in).

This work is registered in the online catalog of overpainted photographs. A comprehensive catalog of Gerhard Richter's overpainted photographs is scheduled to be released in 2017.

PROVENANCE: Galerie Fred Jahn, Munich (with gallery label on verso of backing board).

EXHIBITION: Gerhard Richter. Übermalte Fotografien, Museum Morsbroich, Leverkusen 17 October 2008 - 18 January 2009/Centre de la photographie Genève, Geneva 29 January - 29 March 2009, cat. p. 378 (with color illu.).

While abstract works from the late 1970s and 1980s, such as the painting 'Vögel' (catalog raisonné 509, 1984), hint at figurative associations through title and enigmatic codes, Richter completed his detachment from any concreteness whatsoever in his abstract works from the 1990s. Richter began to work the canvas with the squeegee and did not only ban any figurative associations but also the artist's signature, the characteristic stroke of the brush, from his work. This way he transfers the concealing blur, which had already characterized his figurative works, to his abstract oeuvre. The intellectually conceived application of the paint trails away into a seemingly incidental color veil through the treatment, behind which the original composition is just hinted at. Just as it is the case with the paintings, the squeegee technique also has an effect of disguise and alienation of the motif in this work. This way Richter's strange creations become arresting accounts of the unknown.



781
Gerhard Richter
Ohne Titel, 1992.
Color photograph
Estimate:
€ 40,000 / $ 43,200
Sold:
€ 150,000 / $ 162,000

(incl. surcharge)