Sperone Westwater Gallery, New York
Private Collection, Connecticut
Sotheby's, New York, February 25, 1993, lot 357
Acquired by the present owner from the above sale

New York, Marian Goodman Gallery; New York, Sperone Westwater, Gerhard Richter: Paintings, March - April 1987, p. 44, illustrated in color

Angelika Thill, et. al., Gerhard Richter Catalogue Raisonné: 1962-1993, Osternfildern-Ruit, 1993, cat. no. 618-1, illustrated in color

This work is in very good condition overall. There is evidence of light wear and handling to the edges and sides, particularly along a ¼ inch area running along the bottom, right, and top edges. Under ultraviolet light inspection there is no evidence of restoration. There is a minor 2 ½ inch line of craquelure in the paint surface in the upper right corner, which runs down the right edge. Unframed.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

May 18, 1985: “I am as blind as Nature, who acts as she can, in accordance with the conditions that hinder or help her. Viewed in this light, anything is possible in my pictures; any form, added at will, changes the picture but does not make it wrong. Anything goes; so why do I often spend weeks over adding one thing? What am I making that I want? What picture of what?” Gerhard Richter (Gerhard Richter The Daily Practice of Painting: Writings 1962-1993, London, 1995, p. 121)

A.B. Mohn stands apart from Gerhard Richter’s vast corpus of Abstaktes Bilder, illustrating a spectacular stand-off between intended reaction and mechanical incidence. Richter dramatically augments the sweeping, luscious veil of robust earthly striations with violent incisions into the heart of his painterly construction. Like fissures in open earth, vivid blues and reds punctuate through the cascading symphony of rich ochers. These expressive voids create a unique figure ground relationship—further manipulating our perception of surface and depth. The complementary luminous blues and warm browns further accentuate the dynamic juxtaposition between the sensitive squeegeed surface and the scored finishing marks.
   The slashes in the streaming strata of paint catalyzes the metamorphosis of the two dimensional canvas into a strikingly beautiful art object, recalling Fontana’s iconic tagli and their plunging black recesses. Like Fontana’s definitive incisions, Richter’s scrapes and smears are highly contemplated voids of erasure which create tensions between the viewer and the infinite push and pull of the painting’s surface. Richter was “enormously impressed by Pollock and Fontana” when seeing their work for the first time at the 1958 Documenta in Kassel, going as far to credit their artwork for influencing his decision to ultimately leave the German Democratic Republic. (Gerhard Richter in Exh. Cat., London, Tate Modern, Gerhard Richter: Panorama, 2011, p. 20)
   The 1980s were a deeply contemplative and undeniably transformative period for Richter. The present work was painted at a crucial moment of artistic evolution—both technically and thematically—and in the same year of his first retrospective at the Städtische Kunsthalle in Düsseldorf. A.B. Mohn echoes the detached arbitration of his photorealist paintings of the mid-1980s which depict beautifully nostalgic and majestic landscapes. In a conversation between the artist and Nicolas Serota in the Spring of 2011, Richter states: “Almost all the abstract paintings show scenarios, surroundings and landscapes that don’t exist, but they create the impression that they could exist. As though they were photographs of scenarios and regions that had never yet been seen.” (Ibid, p. 19)