GERHARD RICHTER (b. 1932, Germany)

'Abstraktes Bild (Abstract Painting) #10', 2004/2005 [cat. rais. 889-5]

Beautiful Artist Designed Special Edition Poster

Published by Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, Köln, Germany. Color offset print with a frequency-modulated screen on Prestige matte-finished paper, 250gm. Designed by Gerhard Richter. Dimensions: 33-1/2" x 24" (85 x 61 cm.) [original format 20" x 16-1/4" (51 x 41 cm.)]. BRAND NEW with no visible defects. © 2005 Gerhard Richter and Verlag Walther König Köln. Some images shown are examples of how the poster could be framed. Poster for sale is NOT framed.

At the artist's initiative, Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther Konig has published the Gerhard Richter Poster Edition. In selecting these motifs, Richter considered his entire oeuvre of paintings. He gave preference to small format paintings (up to 51" x 43"), because he believes that these works have only been previously reproduced in books and postcards. The posters are offset prints made directly from transparencies of his paintings. Size: 33 x 24 in/ 85 x 61 cm.

As is typical for Richters working method, these prints are not technically prefect reproductions of his paintings. After the scans were made, proofs were prepared. In a long process with many stages, Richter chose the formats and in doing so chose to enlarge most of the images. In addition, Richter altered the colors, the contrast, and the focus. He decided on the positioning of the images, including the width of the white borders, some which he gave a white hue. Beneath each motif, the artist's name and the title of the image appear in small, gray capital letters - in the style of a printed passé-partout. Each print is a reproduction of one of Richter's paintings, just as the artist wanted it presented on paper. They are not copies but new autonomous works, and frequently they differ from the paintings on which they are based, not just in the details but in general feeling. Photomechanical techniques of reproduction, especially the offset print, have been favored by Richter for his printed works since 1965. It is not the technique but the artist's intention that determines whether a sheet has the character of an original print. This Poster Edition is a retrospective on paper curated by the artist himself.

"I saw - and still see - editions as a welcome counterbalance to the production of paintings that are unique. It is a great opportunity to disseminate my work to a larger puplic."

-- GERHARD RICHTER

'Abstraktes Bild (Abstract Painting)' is an example of one Richter's major painting styles. In Richter's abstract paintings he uses a wide squeegee that covers one whole side of a painting and repeats moving it over and over to layer and take away the paint on the surface. This erases the trace of brushstrokes and, at the same time, multi-layers the colors. By unconsciously improvising combinations of colors, accidental vision emerges on the surface.

Gerhard Richter was born in Dresden, Germany in 1932 to a middle class family. World events in his youth factor into his opinions of ideology of any kind and underpinning the attraction that nature, as an indiscriminate force, holds for him.

At an early age, his mother encouraged him to become an artist and he embarked on a classical education at the Dresden Art Academy in Communist East Germany. Months prior to the erection of the Berlin Wall, he and his wife fled to Düsseldorf, West Germany. From 1961 to 1964, Richter studied at the Staatliche Kunstakademie Düsseldorf under Karl Otto Gotz.

During the early sixties Richter met and began to work with artists such as Sigmar Polke, Konrad Fischer-Lueg and Georg Baselitz. Their work, and Richter's in particular, began to have an impact in Germany, and eventually international art circles.

Richter began to see art as something that had to be separated from art history; he believed that paintings should focus on the image rather than the reference, the visual rather than the statement. He wanted to find a new way of painting that would not be constricting. Gerhard Richter has become one of the most sought after contemporary artists in the world.

'Gerhard Richter' will be on view at the David Zwirner Gallery, Paris France starting 10/20/2025.

The exhibition will coincide with the major retrospective, 'Gerhard Richter', curated by Nicholas Serota and Dieter Schwarz, at the Fondation Louis Vuitton, 10/17/2025 - 3/2/2026.


 

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