Gerhard Richter (b. 1932) Abstraktes Bild. Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2012
signed, numbered and dated '767-3 Richter 1992' (on the reverse); oil on canvas; 24 3/8 x 24 3/8in. (62 x 62cm.). Painted in 1992. Estimate £700,000 - £1,000,000. Price Realized £937,250
Provenance: Marian Goodman Gallery, New York.
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 1996.
Literature: B. Buchloch (ed.), Gerhard Richter, Werkübersicht/Catalogue Raisonné 1962-1993, vol. III, Ostfildern-Ruit 1993, no. 767-3 (illustrated in colour, unpaged).
Notes: 'For Richter, the squeegee is the most important implement for integrating coincidence into his art. For years, he used it sparingly, but he came to appreciate how the structure of paint applied with a squeegee can never be completely controlled. It thus introduces a moment of surprise that often enables him to extricate himself from a creative dead-end, destroying a prior, unsatisfactory effort and opening the door to a fresh start' (D. Elger, Gerhard Richter: A Life in Painting, Chicago 2009, p. 251).
With its lush striations of silvery grey and white interspersed with flecks and flashes of other colours, Abstraktes Bild shimmers like a mirage. Painted by Gerhard Richter in 1992, this Abstract Picture is deliberately elusive: forms veer towards focus and resolution, yet remain infinitely evasive. Indeed, when Richter paints his Abstract Pictures, he usually disrupts any elements that are approaching recognisable forms, preferring instead to create an image which is the result only of the various movements of paint that have led to its creation, change by change. Looking at Abstraktes Bild there is a sense of near iridescence to the smears and streaks of colour in the background, which have been pressed by squeegees and flattened, appearing like marbling and hinting their way through the veil-like strands of grey and white paint which dominate the composition.
For Richter, his free abstraction is the product of a long investigation into the possibilities of painting spanning more than five decades. Coming fullcircle from his early Tisch (1962) in which he cancelled his photorealist image with haptic swirls of grey paint, Richter began in the 1980s to freely overlay his canvases with colourful streaks and drags of pigment using his signature squeegee. As Dietmar Elger has observed, 'for Richter, the squeegee is the most important implement for integrating coincidence into his art. For years, he used it sparingly, but he came to appreciate how the structure of paint applied with a squeegee can never be completely controlled. It thus introduces a moment of surprise that often enables him to extricate himself from a creative dead-end, destroying a prior, unsatisfactory effort and opening the door to a fresh start' (D. Elger, Gerhard Richter: A Life in Painting, Chicago 2009, p. 251). This method was to find its purest articulation between 1989 and 1994 with paintings such asAbstraktes Bild created using confident gestures of the squeegee. Deconstructing the relationship between figure and ground, Richter was embracing the contingency of his medium, enjoying the effects of the spontaneous application of paint. As he once explained, 'it is a good technique for switching off thinking consciously, I can't calculate the result. But subconsciously, I can sense it. This is a nice 'between' state' (G. Richter quoted in ibid, p. 251).
Christie's. Post War and Contemporary Art Evening Auction. 11 October 2012. London, King Street