Gerhard Richter - Contemporary Art Day Sale New York Friday, November 16, 2012 | Phillips

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  • Provenance

    Parkett Verlag, Zurich
    Private Collection

  • Literature

    Parkett, no. 35, 1993, p. 97 (illustrated)
    B. Buchloh ed., Gerhard Richter: Werkübersicht/Catalogue Raisonné 1962-1993, vol. III, Ostfildern-Ruit 1993, no. 789/1-115 (two other examples illustrated)
    H. Butin, ed., Gerhard Richter. Editionen 1965-1993 Catalogue Raisonné, Kunsthalle Bremen, 1993, cat. No. 69, p. 166-167 (another example illustrated)
    H. Butin and S. Gronert, eds., Gerhard Richter. Editionen 1965-2004. Catalogue Raisonné, Ostfildern-Ruit, cat. no. 81, p. 81 (another example illustrated)

  • Catalogue Essay

    Gerhard Richter’s highly acclaimed abstract paintings are magical moments in art, produced mainly by chance, hazard, and clever movements of paint across the surface of his canvases. Deliberately eliminating any overly fgurative or representational forms within such works, the artist states, “We only fnd paintings interesting because we
    always search for something that looks familiar to us. I see something and in my head I compare it and try to fnd out what it relates to. And usually we do fnd those similarities and name them: table, blanket, and so on. When we don’t fnd anything, we are frustrated and that keeps us excited and interested until we have to turn away because we are bored. That’s how abstract painting works.” (G. Richter, quoted in R. Storr, “Interview with Gerhard Richter,” exh. cat., Gerhard Richter: Forty Years of Painting, ed. Robert Storr, New York, 2002, p. 304).

    Richter’s love for painting abstracts is evident in his iconic oeuvre, which are clearly executed with joy, motion, and the artist’s obvious passion for color and long-ingrained relationship with painting itself. In the present lot, Grün Blau Rot 789-5, 1993, and its like works from the Parkett series, Richter basks in the freedom afforded to him by the lack of motif in the painting process. The canvas grants him infnite possibilities and potential to experiment with color and brushstrokes, and is a clear contrast to the
    rigorousness of his meticulously representational Photo Pictures. “I always need to paint abstracts again,” Richter admits. “I need that pleasure.” (G. Richter, quoted in M. Kimmelman, “Gerhard Richter: An Artist Beyond Isms,” The New York Times, January 27, 2002). Ultimately, Richter’s artistic genius lies in his inadvertent wealth of visual associations – not those that he necessarily aims to find in painting, but those for which he discovers along the way.

  • Artist Biography

    Gerhard Richter

    German • 1932

    Powerhouse painter Gerhard Richter has been a key player in defining the formal and ideological agenda for painting in contemporary art. His instantaneously recognizable canvases literally and figuratively blur the lines of representation and abstraction. Uninterested in classification, Richter skates between unorthodoxy and realism, much to the delight of institutions and the market alike. 

    Richter's color palette of potent hues is all substance and "no style," in the artist's own words. From career start in 1962, Richter developed both his photorealist and abstracted languages side-by-side, producing voraciously and evolving his artistic style in short intervals. Richter's illusory paintings find themselves on the walls of the world's most revered museums—for instance, London’s Tate Modern displays the Cage (1) – (6), 2006 paintings that were named after experimental composer John Cage and that inspired the balletic 'Rambert Event' hosted by Phillips Berkeley Square in 2016. 

    View More Works

180

Grün Blau Rot 789-5

1993
oil on canvas
11 3/4 x 15 3/4 in. (30 x 40 cm)
Signed, titled, and dated "789-5, Richter, 93" on the reverse.

Estimate
$200,000 - 300,000 

Sold for $410,500

Contemporary Art Day Sale

16 November 2012
New York