In Untitled (Goldberg-Variationen) from 1984 Gerhard Richter applies his idiosyncratic squeegee technique and radiant brushstrokes to produce irreplicable patterns of colour across the surface of a phonograph record. Swathes of cobalt blue and bright yellow paint have been applied with a squeegee to the record’s surface, interlocking to create an almost even line that divides the record in two. The materiality of the work plays a fundamental role: while the pitch-black surface of the record emerges sporadically, it is taken over by the paint that has been generously applied to its surface. The colours ooze across the surface of the record, forming a visual record of the squeegee’s motion, highlighted by both the dense brushstrokes and the stark opposition between the blue and yellow paint.
Richter’s unorthodox choice to paint over a record in Untitled (Goldberg-Variationen) is a testament to the influence of music on his work. The record in this work is Bach: The Goldberg Variations: Glenn Gould, of 1982, by Canadian classical pianist Glenn Gould. Gould (1932 – 82) was one of the most celebrated pianists of the twentieth century and was especially acclaimed for his reinterpretations of works by the great German composer Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 – 1750). The Goldberg Variations is in fact a revision of Bach’s homonymous composition from 1741. Richter was a great admirer of Gould, and of this piece in particular, as he noted in 1984:
“Glenn Gould, Goldberg Variations – I have been listening to hardly anything else for almost a year. What is starting to bother me, is the perfection. The totally absurd, boring, malicious perfection. No wonder that he died early. I should listen to the radio”.
—Gerhard Richter
In this context, Untitled (Goldberg-Variationen) brings to light multiple principles and practices that are quintessential to Richter’s artistic production. “I am a materialist on principle” he wrote in 1986, meaning that, for him, every emotive association of art derives from its physical properties. In Untitled (Goldberg-Variationen), it is the paint, the support, the brush, and the squeegee that define its character. In being guided by his materials, Richter finds a profound freedom in his work, which also allows him to challenge established norms. For instance, by taking a record as it’s starting point, Untitled (Goldberg-Variationen) presents a challenge to the notion of what constitutes a painting’s support and materiality.
“Almost everything you see here is by chance. The moment of chance is very important, but it is guided and used.”
—Gerhard RichterIn Untitled (Goldberg-Variationen) we see Richter’s fundamental relationship with chance and abstraction foregrounded. While Richter has some element of control – the colours he uses, where they are applied, in what direction the squeegee is moved and with what force – it is chance that creates the gradations of colour across the surface, chance that scratches through the black surface to create rich, irreplicable patterns of blue and yellow. For Richter, abstraction is a way to give form to chance, creating tension between composition and accident. Closely tied to the musical compositions of John Cage, this dialectic remains at the core of Richter’s idiosyncratic anti-aesthetic, which stands on the precipice between involuntary, haphazard chance and the volatile materiality of paint. In this sense, Richter joins a tradition of abstract painters that fundamentally rely on the moment of chance, started by Jackson Pollock with his drip paintings at the end of the 1940s, which depended on the physical engagement of the artist guiding the chance, and on the materiality of the paint itself. This fil rouge continues today, for example in Damien Hirst’s Spin Paintings, which feature intricate and unpredictable patterns of colour created by placing the support on a rotating platform and pouring paint over it. Ultimately, Untitled (Goldberg-Variationen) comprises an exchange between materiality and abstraction that signifies Richter’s desire to be guided by his materials and to create a conceptual artwork that is deliberately inscrutable but ultimately thought-provoking.
Untitled (Goldberg-Variationen) constitutes Richter’s contribution to the portfolio entitled Hommage à Cladders, published by the Museum Abteiberg in Mönchengladbach, Germany, known for its experimental exhibitions and postmodern architecture. Johannes Cladders was the museum director and the mastermind behind its experimental and avant-garde exhibitions in the 1970s. Untitled (Goldberg-Variationen) was Richter’s personal gift on the occasion of Cladders’ 60th birthday, part of the Hommage portfolio containing editions by eighteen artists as an expression of gratitude to the great curator.
