Sale: 540 / Evening Sale, June 09. 2023 in Munich Lot 38

 

38
Gerhard Richter
Ohne Titel (15. Okt. 1990), 1990.
Watercolor
Estimate:
€ 80,000 / $ 86,400
Sold:
€ 101,600 / $ 109,728

(incl. surcharge)
Ohne Titel (15. Okt. 1990). 1990.
Watercolor.
Signed, dated and inscribed "15. Okt. 1990" in upper right. On watercolor paper. 31.9 x 23.8 cm (12.5 x 9.3 in), the full sheet. [CH].

• In Gerhard Richter's œuvre, watercolors make for a small but significant group.
• Richter's watercolors are documents of the spontaneous implementation of his key artistic idea.
• The present work is one of the few works with which the artist revisited the watercolor technique after a two-year break.
• Similar watercolors from the same time are in renowned museums around the world, among them the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Kunstmuseum Winterthur and the Museum Frieder Burda, Baden-Baden
.

Accompanied by a written confirmation from Dr. Dietmar Elger, Gerhard Richter Archive, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, dated September 16, 2014.

The present work is also mentioned in the online catalog of watercolors.

PROVENANCE: Private collection Southern Germany.

"Making paintings is the official part, the daily work, the profession; with the watercolors, I can take the liberty of deciding on a whim."
Gerhard Richter in an interview with Dieter Schwarz, 1999, quoted from: www.gerhard-richter.com/de/quotes/mediums-3/work-on-paper-17.

Gerhard Richter created a first series of watercolors as early as in 1977/1978. Since then, these special works have made up a small but significant work group in his oeuvre. As a common constant that has survived the individual work series, the watercolors show a dominance of strong primary colors, while another common feature is the date instead of a title. After he had not made any watercolors between April 1988 and October 1990, the present work is the first with which Gerhard Richter revisited glazing watercolors in the 1990s . While works from the 1980s are stylistically similar to his paintings, watercolors made in the 1990s are freer and more playful, so that they now assert themselves as a completely independent group. Through the delicate overlays and fine color gradients, he achieves a lightness that he could not implement in his paintings due to the technique and the material. When asked whether he thought he could achieve the same in the watercolors as in the paintings from around the same time, Richter replied: "It was the same problem, only with different means. Formally, that is in terms of technique, I would have been more tempted to wish for the opposite, that is, to achieve the lightness of the watercolor on the large canvas. [.] [Watercolors and oil paintings] are quite different indeed: like a poem and a novel by the same author. [.] Because the watercolor is airier." (Gerhard Richter in a conversation with Dieter Schwarz, 1999, quoted from: D. Elger and H. U. Obrist, Gerhard Richter. Text, Cologne 2008, p. 345)

The present work in a rare portrait format also emanates this very casual airiness. Stripes of color, both subtly translucent and strong, opaque, drawn with a broad brush, superimpose one another, blend and combine to form a fascinating color mist, while the strong sunny yellow runs across the already existing composition as if by chance. Richter explains: "There is [.] nothing to see that I hadn't done myself, the creation is intended and monitored, and if anything goes different than intended, now that's desired, too." (Ibid., p. 353).

As early as in 1985, the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart showed a comprehensive retrospective dedicated exclusively to the watercolors. Ever since they have been prominently exhibited in many solo shows, among others, in the widely acknowledged exhibition "Gerhard Richter. Drawings and Watercolors 1957-2008" at the Musée du Louvre in Paris in 2012, which once again emphasized the special significance of this group of works. [CH]



38
Gerhard Richter
Ohne Titel (15. Okt. 1990), 1990.
Watercolor
Estimate:
€ 80,000 / $ 86,400
Sold:
€ 101,600 / $ 109,728

(incl. surcharge)