Gerhard Richter

After leaving Dresden in 1961, Gerhard Richter lived in Düsseldorf, where he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts and later taught a painting class as a professor. In 1983, together with his second wife, the artist Isa Genzken, he moved to Cologne, where his then Cologne gallery owner Rudolf Zwirner had arranged a large studio for him in an old factory. When Richter began overpainting his first photographs, his career had already reached its first climax. In 1986 the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf organized a major retrospective for him, which was subsequently shown in Berlin, Bern and Vienna. The critics are enthusiastic about the show and Richter has already achieved great success on the art market.

This overpainted photo "Untitled (6.4.91)" shows Antwerpener Strasse in the Belgian Quarter, which is located in the immediate vicinity of Richter's new studio in downtown Cologne. Richter contrasts the rather subdued, toned view of the color photo with traces of bright red color, thus directing the viewer's gaze to the city's landmark in the vanishing point of the depiction - Cologne Cathedral. The photo on which our work is based, like all other overpainted photos, was taken by Richter himself. When it was taken cannot be traced, as Richter usually collects his photographs and paints them over by chance, often several years later. A typical characteristic of early overpainted photographs is the mounting of the photograph on a white DIN A4 cardboard1) before the overpainting begins. In this way, the overpainting extends, as in the present work, over the entire base cardboard and not only - as in later overpainted photographs - to the actual photograph.

In addition to photorealistic painting, which Richter has cultivated since the early 1960s, and abstract painting, which was already very mature in the 1980s, Richter discovered the overpainted photograph as a new genre for his work from 1986 onwards 2). Richter was fascinated by the theme of the conflict inherent in photography. Despite its supposed realism, a photograph can always "only" be an illusionistic and thus intangible representation of the outer world. The materiality of the color stands in stark contrast to the two-dimensional photograph, which seeks to create three-dimensionality through the perspective alignment depicted, but can only produce it on the flat surface. The exploration of the opposites of two-dimensional illusion and three-dimensional materiality, of reality and abstraction, as well as the confrontation with chance as a pictorial element lends the overpainted photographs their great charm and special quality.

In overpainting the photographs, the artist makes use of a variety of techniques: either he draws the photograph in a wiping movement through the still damp oil paint that has adhered to the squeegee used to paint the abstract canvases, or he flattens the print onto the existing paint material. A further process is the pouring out of liquid lacquers over the picture carrier. The results of the different procedures differ greatly. Depending on the material and technique used, the resulting structures can appear pasty, relief-like, translucent, branched or streaky. The results can only be calculated to a limited extent. Chance often plays an important role in the creation of the works. The finished work of art is tested by Gerhard Richter under the highest demands on the resulting image. Only when something exciting has been created does the result receive recognition from the artist.

1 The way of mounting photos corresponds to the archiving of the so-called "Atlas", in which Richter has documented all sources for his photorealistic pictures since 1961.

2 According to Richter's website, the earliest documented work is "Untitled (23.3.86)". Cf. http://www.gerhard-richter.com/biography/die-1990er-jahre-vertiefung-und-entwicklung-8