Sperone Westwater Gallery, New York
Private Collection, Chicago
Sotheby's, New York, November 18, 1992, Lot 291
Acquired by the present owner from the above

Angelika Thill, et al., Gerhard Richter: A Catalogue Raisonné 1962 - 1993, vol. III, Ostfildern-Ruit, 1993, cat. no. 678-2, n.p., illustrated in color

This work is in excellent condition. Examination under raking light shows a very small shallow undulation approximately 1 ½" in diameter, located 15" from the top and 3" from the right edge, with extremely minor traces of fibrous particles present. Under ultraviolet light there are no apparent restorations. The work is framed in a black painted wood frame with a small float.
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.

Painted during the seminal years of 1988-1992, Abstraktes Bild is a supremely elegant and fully resolved exemplar of Gerhard Richter’s epic corpus of Abstract Paintings. The present work embodies the mature aesthetic of the artist’s abstract vision in which his investigations into the theories of perception and painting had reached a new forceful paradigm. A dual product of Richter’s exacting practice and his abiding respect for the whims of chance, the surface of Abstraktes Bild is a symphony of brilliantly charged hues that alternatively coalesce and dissolve into a myriad of color relations. A vivid moss green simultaneously emerges from and fuses with cool greys to create a multidimensional composition, punctuated by vibrant accents of yellow and orange red. The textured vertical striations that result from Richter’s distinctive technique create an intricate visual phenomenon that compounds the sense of depth and wonder felt by the viewer who is overcome by the work’s arresting beauty, depth and texture. The eye is invited to look both at and through the laminae of material, formed by the artist’s process of application. As disparate colors unite in a sublime coloristic harmony and lyrical resonance, an atmosphere of density and chaos is produced as we witness a visual phenomenon that is both logical and visceral.

Richter’s Abstract Paintings represent the culmination of decades of systematic probing of the nature of visual aesthetics. His art has persistently engaged in a critical dialogue with the historical conception of painting – tackling since the early 1960s the declaration of painting’s death heralded by Marcel Duchamp and his Modernist peers. With his early Photo-paintings, Richter instigated a groundbreaking re-examination of painting in the face of technological means of mass production. Flawlessly blurred while the pigment remained wet, the Photo-paintings bridged the gap between abstract painting and photographic figuration. The 1970s and 1980s were a period of intensive artistic experimentation as Richter produced the precursors to his Abstrakte Bilder. Following the creative trajectory from the vibrant Colour Charts to the series of Grey Paintings, Richter sought new inspiration, prompting a series of small abstract sketches: “So I set out in the totally opposite direction. On small canvases I put random, illogical colours and forms - mostly with long pauses in between, which made sure that these paintings - if you can call them that - became more and more heterogeneous…” (the artist cited in Dietmar Elgar, Gerhard Richter, A Life in Painting, Chicago, 2009, p. 231) Inspired by this 🉐breakthrough Rich♋ter photographed details of the sketches to use as the basis for larger abstract paintings, re-creating the various brushstrokes on a grand scale on his canvases.

Throughout the 1980s Richter pursued this fully abstract style with the same fervor for technical mastery that he exhibited in his Photo-paintings. In paintings such as Abstraktes Bild, the artist’s working practice is systematic and efficient: he begins by placing a number of white primed canvases around the walls of his studio, working on several of them simultaneously until he feels that they are completely harmonized. Swathes of color are dragged across the canvas using a rubber squeegee, so that the various strains of malleable, semi-liquid pigment are fused together, first smudged into the canvas and then layered on top of each other as the paint strata accumulate. The painting undergoes multiple variations in which each new accretion brings color and textural juxtapositions until, as Richter himself declares, “there is no more that I can do to them, when they exceed me, or they have something that I can no longer keep up with.” (the artist cited in Exh. Cat., Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art, Gerhard Richter: Paintings, 1988, p. 108) This extensive process facilitates multiple facets of creativity: Abstraktes Bild truly becomes the sum of Richter&rsq🍸uo;s wide-ranging innovation.

An element of chance is inherent to the artistic ideology of Richter’s abstracts.As the artist has explained, “I want to end up with a picture that I haven’t planned. This method of arbitrary choice, chance, inspiration and destruction may produce a specific type of picture, but it never produces a predetermined picture.” (the artist interviewed in 1990 in Hubertus Butin and Stefan Gronert, eds., Gerhard Richter. Editions 1965-2004: Catalogue Raisonné, Ostfildern-Ruit, 2004, p. 36) Although he meticulously moves his squeegee across the wet painted surface of his canvases, Richter cannot fully control the manner in which his pigments alternately combine and separate. As he worked and re-worked the surface of the present painting, for example, Richter uncovered a sinuous and dazzling red accent which, as if cascading organically down the canvas, acts as a compositional exclamation point, breaking through its neighboring hues and dynamically asserting its presence. Thus, with its equal dependence on chance and precision, a potent confluence of artistic forces is realized in the present work. As such Abstraktes Bild of 1988 communes an emotional relationship with the viewer and becomes itself experience rather thaღn object.