Gerhard Richter @ Galerie David Zwirner, Paris - Exposition + Biographie

Gerhard Richter

Galerie David Zwirner, Paris

20 octobre - 20 décembre 2025

David Zwirner présente dans sa Galerie de Paris une sélection de peintures, dessins et installations de miroirs de Gerhard Richter. L’exposition marque la troisième collaboration du célèbre artiste allemand avec la Galerie depuis l’annonce de sa représentation en 2023. Elle fait suite aux expositions monographiques tenues à New York (2023) et à Londres (2024), et coïncide avec une rétrospective d’envergure s’ouvrant le 17 octobre 2025 à la Fondation Louis Vuitton à Paris, sous le commissariat de Nicholas Serota et Dieter Schwarz.

Gerhard Richter

Kl. Badende (Petite baigneuse), 1994

© Gerhard Richter 2025 (20102025) 

Courtesy the artist and David Zwirner

Gerhard Richter

Blumen, (Fleurs), 1992

Oil on canvas

© Gerhard Richter 2025 (20102025) 

Courtesy the artist and David Zwirner

Les oeuvres présentées chez David Zwirner témoignent de l’impressionnante diversité d’enjeux, d’échelles et de techniques que mobilise l’artiste dans son travail. Prises dans leur ensemble, elles mettent en lumière sa profonde compréhension du médium pictural et l’enquête sans cesse renouvelée qu’il mène autour du fait même de créer une oeuvre. Dans ses Fotobilder (Photo-peintures) – par exemple Blumen (Fleurs, 1992), Torso (Torse, 1997) ou Kl. Badende (Petite baigneuse, 1994) –, l’artiste utilise ses propres photographies comme point de départ, mais aussi des images trouvées au hasard de journaux, magazines ou publicités. Souvent, l’artiste floute ou dénature d’une façon ou d’une autre l’image qui résulte de ce travail de composition, rendant plus complexe encore la relation qui unit la photographie à la peinture : une expérience conceptuelle se joue dans ces transpositions itératives entre les deux médiums.

Gerhard Richter

Abstraktes Bild (Tableau abstrait), 2001

Oil on alu dibond

© Gerhard Richter 2025 (20102025)

Courtesy the artist and David Zwirner

Gerhard Richter

Abstraktes Bild (Tableau abstrait), 2001

Oil on alu dibond

© Gerhard Richter 2025 (20102025)

Courtesy the artist and David Zwirner

Avec la série des Abstrakte Bilder (Tableaux abstraits), Gerhard Richter explore le potentiel formel et conceptuel de la peinture sous un autre angle. Exécutées selon des principes de composition extrêmement rigoureux, ces oeuvres ont recours à l’abstraction pour mettre en exergue la matérialité de la peinture et de la couleur – une méthode de création à la fois aléatoire et planifi ée avec soin. Deux Tableaux abstraits datant de 2001 sont exposés, marbrés de peinture verte, rose vif ou jaune d’or se déployant harmonieusement sur toute la surface de la toile. Les deux oeuvres contrastent ainsi avec les dernières peintures à l’huile réalisées par l’artiste de 2015 à 2017, qui se caractérisent au contraire par des entrelacs complexes où la superposition de lignes et de touches appliquées avec vigueur créent une impression de relief. Ces peintures sont confrontées à Strip, tableau de 2024 s’étirant sur quatre mètres de largeur. Revisitant ses Tableaux abstraits grâce aux technologies numériques, Gerhard Richter orchestre dans la série des Strips un dialogue entre la peinture, la photographie, la reproduction d’images par impression et l’abstraction.

Des dessins récents de l’artiste figurent aussi dans l’exposition ; certains totalement inédits et d’autres ayant été présentés plus tôt cette année dans le cadre de Gerhard Richter: 81 Zeichnungen, 1 Strip-Bild, 1 Edition à la Staatliche Graphische Sammlung de Munich. Gerhard Richter a toujours accordé une place importante au médium du dessin dans sa pratique artistique, et le passage des années n’a pas démenti cet engagement fructueux. Les oeuvres présentées, incorporant souvent des encres de couleur et du crayon à mine de graphite, lui permettent d’explorer une autre dimension du rôle de la main de l’artiste dans le processus menant à la création d’un « récit » pictural abstrait mais dynamique.

L’exposition à Paris comprend également trois installations de surfaces réfl échissantes montées au mur, de tailles différentes, ainsi que 3 Scheiben (3 Panneaux de verre, 2023), où trois pans de verre transparent et réfl échissant sont dressés au sein d’un cadre en métal. Depuis 1967 et la création de son installation 4 Glasscheiben (4 Panneaux de verre), qui a marqué un tournant dans sa carrière, Gerhard Richter nourrit un grand intérêt analytique – qui confine à la fascination – pour le verre. De façon très personnelle, il mobilise ce matériau moins comme un élément de sculpture pure que comme une « réflexion », dans les deux sens du terme, de son investigation de la peinture et de la création d’image. Contempler ces oeuvres – et donc aussi les images qui se forment à leur surface – est une expérience radicalement paradoxale où la réalité, répliquée par le miroir de manière forcément fi dèle au monde réel qui entoure nécessairement l’oeuvre, devient pourtant inaccessible en tant que refl et, à la fois hors de portée et déformée. 

Dans les oeuvres en verre de Gerhard Richter, comme le soulignent Janice Bretz et Kerstin Küster, « les visiteurs ne restent pas spectateurs mais deviennent eux-mêmes créateurs ; ils se confrontent à l’écart entre l’espace d’exposition réel et le refl et aléatoire de la réalité sur le verre. […] L’artiste nous invite à réfl échir au fait même de voir et à considérer ce que l’on voit comme une seule réalité potentielle parmi de nombreuses autres. Voir est contextuel : la réalité dépend toujours de celui qui regarde ». – Janice Bretz and Kerstin Küster, “Transparent and Reflected: Mirrors, Glass, and Strips,” in Gerhard Richter: Abstraction. Exh. cat. (Potsdam: Museum Barberini, 2020), p. 198.

Artiste Gerhard Richter

Gerhard Richter est né en 1932 à Dresde en Allemagne. Il étudie les beaux-arts de 1951 à 1956 à la Hochschule für Bildende Künste de Dresde et se spécialise en peinture murale. En 1959, il visite la documenta II qui se tient à Cassel, alors en Allemagne de l’Ouest : une expérience fondatrice qui le mène à infl échir sa trajectoire artistique. Après avoir réussi à fuir l’Allemagne de l’Est en 1961, il entreprend un second cycle d’études à la Staatliche Kunstakademie de Düsseldorf. Il y cofonde un mouvement éphémère appelé « réalisme capitaliste » avec ses condisciples Sigmar Polke, Konrad Lueg (qui deviendra galeriste, plus connu sous le nom de Konrad Fischer) et Manfred Kuttner.

À partir de 1964, son travail fait l’objet de nombreuses expositions personnelles dans des galeries et musées du le monde entier. Sa première exposition monographique dans une institution publique se tient en 1969 au Gegenverkehr du Zentrum für aktuelle Kunst d’Aachen, en Allemagne de l’Ouest. En 1972, il est choisi pour représenter l’Allemagne à la Biennale de Venise, où il investit le pavillon national de ses seules oeuvres. Il est aussi l’artiste ayant présenté son travail le plus grand nombre de fois à la documenta (en 1972, 1977, 1982, 1987, 1992, 1997, 2007 et 2017). Le travail de Gerhard Richter a été montré tout autour du monde au fi l de nombreuses rétrospectives et expositions monographiques au sein d’institutions de premier plan, parmi lesquelles le Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen à Düsseldorf (1971, 1986), la Kunsthalle de Brême en Allemagne de l’Ouest (1975), le Centre Pompidou à Paris (1977, 2012), la Städtische Kunsthalle de Düsseldorf (1986), la Neue Nationalgalerie de Berlin (1986, 2012), le Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden à Washington D.C. (1988, 2003), le San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (1989, 2002), la Tate à Londres (1991, 2011), le Moderna Museet à Stockholm (1993), l’Art Institute de Chicago (2002), le MoMA à New York (2002), la Queensland Art Gallery à Brisbane (2017), le Met Breuer à New York (2020) et le National Museum of Modern Art de Tokyo (2022). En avril 2023, la Neue Nationalgalerie de Berlin inaugurait une installation semi-permanente intitulée Gerhard Richter: 100 Works for Berlin, rassemblant des prêts à très long terme consentis par la Fondation Gerhard Richter en 2021, parmi lesquels le cycle d’oeuvres Birkenau (2014), série de peintures abstraites de grandes dimensions.

Gerhard Richter est le lauréat de nombreux prix et distinctions prestigieux comme, parmi d’autres, le Kunstpreis Junger Westen de la Kunsthalle de Recklinghausen en Allemagne de l’Ouest (1967), le prix Arnold Bode de Cassel en Allemagne de l’Ouest (1982), le prix Oskar Kokoschka de Vienne (1985), le Goslarer Kaiserring de Goslar en Allemagne de l’Ouest (1988), le Lion d’or de la 47e Biennale de Venise (1997), le Praemium Imperiale de la Japan Art Association de Tokyo (1997), le prix Wexner du Wexner Center for the Arts de Columbus en Ohio (1998), le Foreign Honorary Membership de l’American Academy of Arts and Letters de New York (1998), le Staatspreis du Lander de Rhénanie-du-Nord-Westphalie de Düsseldorf (2000) et le Kunst- und Kulturpreis der deutschen Katholiken de la Deutsche Bischofskonferenz de Bonn (2004). En 2007, année où il crée un vitrail spectaculaire pour la cathédrale de Cologne, Gerhard Richter est élevé au rang de citoyen d’honneur de la ville.

David Zwirner représente Gerhard Richter depuis 2023. Cette année-là, sa galerie new-yorkaise accueille une exposition personnelle de l’artiste allemand. Rassemblant des peintures abstraites récentes, elle s’accompagne d’un catalogue richement illustré comportant un essai inédit de Dieter Schwarz. Au début 2024, une exposition monographique est consacrée à l’artiste chez David Zwirner London. Parmi les précédentes expositions de son travail s’étant tenues à New York, notons Gerhard Richter: Prints and Multiples 1966–1993 (1994), Gerhard Richter: Early Paintings (2000) et Gerhard Richter: Landscapes (2004). Les oeuvres de l’artiste sont présentes dans des collections publiques et privées de tout premier plan à travers le monde. Gerhard Richter vit et travaille à Cologne.

DAVID ZWIRNER, PARIS

108, rue Vieille du Temple, 75003 Paris

www.davidzwirner.com

Typologien: Photography in 20th-Century Germany @ Fondazione Prada, Milan - Exhibition Curated by Suzanne Pfeffer

Typologien

Photography in 20th-Century Germany

Fondazione Prada, Milan

Through 14 July 2025

Fondazione Prada presents “Typologien,” an extensive study dedicated to 20th-century German photography, at its Milan venue. The exhibition, hosted within Podium, the central building of the Milan headquarters, is curated by Susanne Pfeffer, art historian and director of the MUSEUM MMK FÜR MODERNE KUNST, Frankfurt.

The exhibition attempts to apply the principle of “typology,” which originated in 17th- and 18th-century botany to categorize and study plants, and appeared in photography in the early 1900s, affirming itself in Germany throughout the 20th century. Paradoxically, the given formal principle allows for unexpected convergences of German artists spanning different generations and the manifestation of their individual approaches.

The exhibition path follows a typological rather than a chronological order, bringing together more than 600 photographic works by 25 established and lesser-known artists essential for recounting a century of German photography, including Bernd and Hilla Becher, Sibylle Bergemann, Karl Blossfeldt, Ursula Böhmer, Christian Borchert, Margit Emmrich, Hans-Peter Feldmann, Isa Genzken, Andreas Gursky, Candida Höfer, Lotte Jacobi, Jochen Lempert, Simone Nieweg, Sigmar Polke, Gerhard Richter, Heinrich Riebesehl, Thomas Ruff, August Sander, Ursula Schulz-Dornburg, Thomas Struth, Wolfgang Tillmans, Rosemarie Trockel, Umbo (Otto Umbehr), and Marianne Wex. A system of suspended walls creates geometric partitions in the exhibition space, forming unexpected connections between artistic practices that differ from each other, but are united by a common principle or intention of classification.

As stated by Susanne Pfeffer, “Only through juxtaposition and direct comparison is it possible to find out what is individual and what is universal, what is normative or real. Differences are evidence of the abundance of nature and the imagination of humans: the fern, the cow, the human being, the ear; the bus stop, the water tower, the stereo system, the museum. The typological comparison allows differences and similarities to emerge and the specifics to be grasped. Unknown or previously unperceived things about nature, the animal, or the object, about place and time become visible and recognizable.”

In photography, employing typologies means affirming an equivalence between images and the absence of hierarchies in terms of represented subjects, motifs, genres, and sources. Despite this, typology remains a highly challenging and complex notion. It operates in a paradoxical regime: on the one hand, this approach can lead to a systematic recording of people and objects based on extreme objectivity; on the other hand, typology corresponds to an individual and arbitrary choice, revealing itself as a disturbing and potentially subversive act.

The hypothesis that photography plays a key role not only in fixing distinctive phenomena but also in organizing and classifying a plurality of visible manifestations remains a vital force in today’s artistic efforts to navigate the complexity of our social and cultural realities. With the spread of digital imagery and practices, the concept of typology continues to be questioned and re-defined by contemporary photographers and artists.

As underlined by Susanne Pfeffer, “The unique, the individual, seems to have been absorbed into a global mass, the universality of things is omnipresent. The Internet allows typologies to be created in a matter of seconds. And yet this is precisely when it seems important—to artists—to take a closer look.” As further explained by Pfeffer, “When the present seems to have abandoned the future, we need to observe the past more closely. When everything seems to be shouting at you and becoming increasingly brutal, it is important to take a quiet pause and use the silence to see and think clearly. When differences are not seen as something other, but turned into something that divides us, it is crucial to notice what we have in common. Typologies allow us to identify remarkable similarities and subtle differences.”

In the early 20th century, Karl Blossfeldt (1865–1932) was one of the first artists to transfer the classification system used in botanical studies to photography. His vast and detailed plant atlas represented a foundational moment for German Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity). This artistic and photographic movement emerged in the 1920s during the Weimar Republic and promoted the importance of categories and distinctions and the remarkable ability of photography as a medium to explore the very idea of typology.

Another pioneering figure was August Sander (1876–1964), who published his photo book Antlitz der Zeit (Face of Our Time) in 1929, at the time excerpted from his landmark project Menschen des 20. Jahrhunderts (People of the 20th Century). Described by Walter Benjamin as a “training atlas” of physiognomic perception, Antlitz der Zeit was an ambitious attempt to portray the diversity and the structure of German society using class, gender, age, occupation, and social background as distinct categories of a rigid and neutral classification system. 

Both Karl Blossfeldt’s and August Sander’s typologies were fundamental for Bernd Becher (1931–2007) and Hilla Becher (1934–2015) when, at the end of the fifties, they began an enormous and lifelong documentation and preservation project of industrial architecture. In 1971, they described the “industrial constructions” as “objects, not motifs”. They stated that “the information we want to provide is only created through the sequence, through the juxtaposition of similar or different objects with the same function”. Their black-and-white monuments, or “anonymous sculptures”, isolated against a monochromatic sky, centered, framed in the same format and arranged in a block, became an essential reference for American and European Post-Minimalist and Conceptual artists. They also represented a rich heritage for younger generations of German artists and photographers, such as Andreas Gursky (b. 1955), Candida Höfer (b. 1944), Simone Nieweg (b. 1962), Thomas Ruff (b. 1958) and Thomas Struth (b. 1954), who studied at the Academy in Düsseldorf in the class led by Bernd and Hilla Becher from 1976.

Hans-Peter Feldmann (1941–2023), internationally recognised for his fundamental contribution to conceptual art, traced a complementary trajectory in German photography. In his works, he documented everyday objects and historical events and combined deadpan humor with a systematic approach to accumulating, cataloguing, and rearranging elements of contemporary visual culture. In his series, he invented personal yet very political typologies and adopted a deliberate snapshot approach with a commercial aesthetic. For his work Alle Kleider einer Frau (All the Clothes of a Woman, 1975), he took 35mm-format photographs of underwear, hosiery, T-shirts, dresses, trousers, skirts, socks, and shoes, all hanging on hangers on the wall or laid on dark fabric. With his project Die Toten 1967–1993 (The Dead 1967–1993, 1996–98), he paid homage to individuals murdered in the context of the political and terroristic movements in Post-War Germany. As pointed out by Susanne Pfeffer, “With his typologies, he emphasized the equal value of all photographs, their image sources and motifs, and underscored the de-hierarchization inherent in every typology.”

In his apparently random collection of found, personal or pornographic images, press clippings, and historical photos of Nazi concentration camps, the Red Army Faction and German reunification, a “private album” named Atlas (1962 – present), Gerhard Richter (b. 1932) seemed to deny or challenge the very idea of typology. Instead, he took the principle of equivalence between images and their trivialization process to the limits, creating a jarring contrast and an acute awareness of a repressed collective memory.

In the seventies and eighties, in a dialectic relationship with the artistic lessons of the Bechers, Andreas Gursky, Candida Höfer, Thomas Ruff, and Thomas Struth progressively abandoned the radicalism and black-and-white purism of their professors. They explored the colorful dominance of banality in their series of individual or family portraits, monumental and detailed city views, and spectacular documentation of cultural or tourist sites, generating a plethora of contemporary and conflicting typologies.

In the late seventies and early eighties, multimedia artist Isa Genzken (b. 1948) engaged in a direct dialogue with the photographic medium. In 1979, she created a series entitled Hi-Fi that featured advertisements of avant-garde Japanese stereo equipment, organizing them in an imaginary commercial catalog. The second series entitled Ohr (Ear) (1980) depicted, in large-scale color close-ups, the ears of random women Genzken photographed on the streets of New York City. She transferred the traditional portrait genre to physiognomic detail and ironically investigating the absolute singularity and infinite individual differentiation the photographic portrait can record.

Typologien

Photography in 20th-Century Germany

Image courtesy of the Fondazione Pada

An illustrated book, published by Fondazione Prada and designed by Zak Group, accompanies the exhibition “Typologien: Photography in 20th-Century Germany”. It includes an introduction by Miuccia Prada, President and Director of Fondazione Prada, a text by the exhibition curator Susanne Pfeffer and three essays by renowned international art historians and curators Benjamin Buchloh, Tom Holert, and Renée Mussai.

FONDAZIONE PRADA, MILAN

Largo Isarco 2, 20139 Milano

www.fondazioneprada.org

Typologien: Photography in 20th-Century Germany @ Fondazione Prada, Milan, 3 April - 14 July 2025

Phillips Evening & Day Editions Auction, London - Artists & Artworks Highlights

Phillips Evening & Day Editions Auction, London

Auction viewing: 17 January - 23 January 2025

Auction: 23 - 24 January 2025

Mel Bochner

Amazing, 2012

Estimate: £30,000 - 50,000

Photo © Phillips

Cy Twombly

Roman Notes II, from Roman Notes (B. 22), 1970

Estimate: £30,000 - 50,000

Photo © Phillips

KAWS

UPS AND DOWNS, 2013

Estimate: £30,000 - 50,000

Photo © Phillips

Phillips announces highlights from the Evening & Day Editions Auction, taking place in London on 23 and 24 January. Featuring over 240 works spanning the early 20th century to today, the sale brings together renowned printmakers and contemporary artists, including Banksy, Jasper Johns, and Jonas Wood. Additional highlights include works by Andy Warhol, including a dedicated section inspired by newspapers, alongside pieces by Gerhard Richter, Cy Twombly, KAWS, Yoshitomo Nara, David Hockney, and a selection of editions from The Herbig Collection. The full sale catalogue is now live online, with the public exhibition on view at 30 Berkeley Square from 17 January.

Rebecca Tooby-Desmond, Specialist, Head of Sale, Editions, and Auctioneer, said, “We are excited to kick off the new auction season with a dynamic and diverse offering of works spanning the Modern, Post-War, and Contemporary eras. From the surreal to the sublime, our auctions showcase innovation in edition making, from the ephemeral, avant-garde world of Marcel Broodthaers, through Pop portraits, to the enigmatic, graphic abstraction of Jasper Johns, Cy Twombly and Jonas Wood. Our sale brings together over 240 exceptional lots and we look forward to welcoming collectors and art enthusiasts to our Berkeley Square galleries for the public preview, opening on 17 January.”

Leading the sale is Banksy’s Flower Thrower Triptych (Grey) (2019) [estimate: £100,000–150,000], one of the artist’s most iconic and socially charged images. Depicting a masked figure hurling a bouquet of flowers like a Molotov cocktail, the work juxtaposes themes of resistance and hope, becoming a global symbol of peace. First created as Love is in the Air for Banksy’s 2002 Los Angeles exhibition, the motif gained further significance when stencilled onto Jerusalem’s West Bank Wall in 2003, underscoring its enduring resonance as a timeless call for peace.

Jasper Johns

Corpse and Mirror (U.L.A.E. 169), 1976 

Estimate: £60,000 - 80,000

Photo © Phillips

Jasper Johns’ Corpse and Mirror (1976) is a striking exploration of order and ambiguity, transforming the crosshatch motif into a mesmerising composition. Inspired by a fleeting glimpse of slanted lines on a passing car, Johns executed the work using 36 screens, layering wax-infused ink to create luminous depth and tactility. Produced in collaboration with Simca Print Artists, the screenprint exemplifies Johns’ seamless dialogue between painting and printmaking, inviting viewers into a meditative study of repetition, variation, and perception.

Jonas Wood

Four Majors, 2018

Estimate: £40,000 - 60,000

Photo © Phillips

Jonas Wood’s Four Majors (2018), is a vibrant quartet of screenprints reimagining iconic tennis courts in Melbourne, Paris, London, and New York. Rendered in bold, flat colours with simplified geometric forms, the works blur the line between reality and abstraction, transforming physical spaces into playful, imagined compositions.

Gerhard Richter

Goldberg-Variationen (Goldberg Variations), 

from Hommage à Cladders (B. 60), 1984

Estimate: £40,000 - 60,000

Photo © Phillips

Gerhard Richter’s Goldberg-Variationen (Goldberg Variations) (1984) transforms a phonograph record of Glenn Gould’s 1982 The Goldberg Variations into a vibrant abstract composition, testament to Richter’s fascination with materiality and music. Swathes of cobalt blue and bright yellow paint merge and contrast, with glimpses of the record’s black surface emerging beneath.

Additional highlights include pieces by Cy Twombly, Mel Bochner, KAWS, Ed Ruscha, Yoshitomo Nara, and David Hockney, alongside further works by Banksy.

Yoshitomo Nara

Hand Searching, 2017

Estimate: £25,000 - 35,000

Photo © Phillips

David Hockney

4th February 2021, Flowers in a White Vase with Chair, 2021

Estimate: £25,000 - 35,000

Photo © Phillips

Ed Ruscha

History Kids, from Mountain Prints, 2013

Estimate: £25,000 - 35,000

Photo © Phillips

The sale features 19 works by Andy Warhol, including Saint Apollonia. Inspired by a 15th-century painting attributed to Piero della Francesca, Warhol’s depiction retains much of the original’s detail, including the cracked tempera and gold leaf, while transforming the religious icon into a Pop aesthetic exploration of commodification and originality. Part of his broader engagement with Renaissance art in the 1980s, Saint Apollonia aligns with Warhol’s Details of Renaissance Paintings series, where he likened the cultural prominence of classical masterpieces to modern celebrity. Further Warhol highlights include his celebrated depictions of advertisements.

Andy Warhol

Saint Apollonia (F. & S. 330-333), 1984

Estimate: £25,000-35,000

Photo © Phillips

Andy Warhol

Steaks 99¢ (F. & S. IIIA.68), circa 1986

Estimate: £10,000 – 15,000

Photo © Phillips

Andy Warhol

New York Post (Judge Blasts Lynch) (F. & S. IIIA.46), circa 1983

Estimate: £8,000 – 12,000

Photo © Phillips

After debuting works by Marcel Broodthaers from the Herbig Collection in the fall 2024 Modern & Contemporary Art sales, Phillips is pleased to offer further works from this esteemed collection, including Citron - Citroen Réclame pour la Mer du Nord and Les animaux de la ferme (Farm Animals).

Marcel Broodthaers

Citron - Citroen Réclame pour la Mer du Nord 

(Lemon - Citroen Ad for the North Sea) (V. 19), 1984

Estimate: £5,000 – 7,000

Photo © Phillips

Marcel Broodthaers

Les animaux de la ferme (Farm Animals) (V. 22), 1974

Estimate: £4,000 – 6,000

Photo © Phillips

PHILLIPS LONDON

30 Berkeley Square, London W1J 6EX

www.phillips.com

Gerhard Richter @ David Zwirner Gallery, London

Gerhard Richter

David Zwirner Gallery, London

Opening January 25, 2024

Gerhard Richter

11.8.2023 (3), 2023

Colored ink and pencil on paper

© Gerhard Richter 2024 (25012024)

Courtesy the artist and David Zwirner

David Zwirner presents an exhibition of new and recent work by renowned German artist Gerhard Richter (b. 1932) at the gallery’s 24 Grafton Street location in London. This considered installation reaffirms Gerhard Richter’s unwavering commitment to pushing the boundaries of abstraction through formal and conceptual experimentation. 

On view are important recent works that illustrate the ease and fascination with which Gerhard Richter moves across different mediums and modes of display in his practice. Centrally featured will be an abstract painting created in 2015—just two years before Richter’s decision to move away from oil paint and turn toward works on paper and installations with increasing dedication. A suite of new works on paper, all on view for the first time in this presentation, illuminates the newfound urgency and prominence that the artist has placed on process and technique in drawing. The exhibition is also include one of the largest examples of the artist’s digitally derived Strip paintings (begun in 2011), a selection of reflective Spiegel (Mirror) installations, and a group of works made with lacquer behind glass, highlighting his expansive approach to the painted medium. Together, these works speak to Gerhard Richter’s sustained inquiry into the fixity of perception and fundamentally examine the way in which we relate to images and visual abstraction.

This is the gallery’s first exhibition of Gerhard Richter’s work in London since announcing his representation in December 2022, and follows the artist’s recent debut at David Zwirner in New York, which took place in Spring 2023. A fully illustrated catalogue commemorating the 2023 exhibition is now available for purchase from David Zwirner Books. The publication includes a newly commissioned essay by Dieter Schwarz, one of the foremost experts on Gerhard Richter’s work.

DAVID ZWIRNER LONDON

24 Grafton Street, London

www.davidzwirner.com

Gerhard Richter @ David Zwirner Online - "PAMUL" Print

Gerhard Richter, PAMUL

David Zwirner Online

Launching December 8, 2023

Gerhard Richter 

PAMUL, 2023

© Gerhard Richter 2023 (08122023)

Courtesy the artist and David Zwirner

David Zwirner Online is pleased to debut PAMUL, a new print by Gerhard Richter. This new work is an inkjet print based on a 2023 drawing by the artist. During the printing process, the artist subjected the original composition to a series of notable alterations—including enlarging the overall image size, augmenting the drawing with additional markings and elements, removing the signature and date, and adding a light cream border around the edge of the entire image—so that the final editioned work expresses a subtle but intentional visual evolution from its drawn predecessor.

Celebrated worldwide as one of the most important and influential artists of his generation, with a career spanning six decades, Gerhard Richter has pursued a diverse practice that is grounded in nuanced investigations of history, memory, and representation. Prints and editions have played a crucial role in Richter’s oeuvre since 1965. His vast body of editioned works—which are often derived from the artist’s own artworks, as well as clippings from family archives and mass media—have constantly served as a way for him to experiment with the production of visual facsimiles and the iterative translation and interplay of mediums.

DAVID ZWIRNER

www.davidzwirner.com 

Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco: Art & Vinyl: Artists & the Record Album from Picasso to the Present

Art & Vinyl: Artists & the Record Album from Picasso to the Present
Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco
4 January - 3 March, 2018

GERHARD RICHTER 

Goldberg-Variationen (Butin 060), 1984

Oil on vinyl record

Courtesy Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco 

Fraenkel Gallery presents Art & Vinyl, an exhibition examining the ways in which artists have been drawn to records and their covers as mediums for original works of art. Comprised of more than one hundred often rare and important examples, this will be the first in-depth exhibition to focus on works of art created specifically for an album, composer or musician. Seen together, the albums span seven decades and a staggering array of conceptual strategies, and sketch an idiosyncratic history of art from the mid-20th century to the present.

The exhibition begins with Pablo Picasso’s depiction of a white dove, printed directly onto the surface of Paul Robeson’s Songs of Peace in 1949, and continues with works by artists as wide-ranging as Josef Albers, Tauba Auerbach, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Joseph Beuys, Sophie Calle, Jean Dubuffet, Marlene Dumas, Yves Klein, Barbara Kruger, Sol LeWitt, Chris Ofili, Ed Ruscha, Cindy Sherman, and Andy Warhol. Included are works by supreme outliers such as Richard Hamilton, whose indelible un-artwork forever defined The Beatles' white album; Christian Marclay, whose non-sleeve allowed his Record Without a Cover to accumulate a lifetime of scratches; and Gerhard Richter, whose 1984 oil painting on the surface of Glenn Gould’s revered Goldberg Variations leaves Bach’s composition seeable but forever unplayable.

Art & Vinyl has been curated by Antoine de Beaupré, a hardcore music lover, author of Total Records, and founder of Librarie 213, a Paris bookshop specializing in rare and out-of-print books.

The exhibition is accompanied by a 464-page hardcover catalogue, available at the gallery or on the Fraenkel Gallery's website and distributed internationally by D.A.P.

Fraenkel Gallery
49 Geary Street, San Francisco, CA 94108
www.fraenkelgallery.com

Post-War & Contemporary Art - Christie’s London Auctions lead by Andy Warhol and Jeff Koons works

Post-War & Contemporary Art Auctions 

Christie’s London

16 - 17 February 2011

CHRISTIE’S AUCTIONS OF POST-WAR AND CONTEMPORARY ART will take place on 16 and 17 February 2011 in London and are expected to realise a combined total of £46,246,000 to £66,447,000 (corresponding auctions in February 2010 - £34.9 million to £50.5 million). Highlights from the Evening auction were on public exhibition at Christie’s New York from 24 to 26 January. The full auctions is on public exhibition in London from 12 to 16 February.

ANDY WARHOL AND JEFF KOONS LEAD CONTEMPORARY MASTERWORKS

Francis Outred, Head of Post-War and Contemporary Art, Christie’s Europe: “I am very excited by the upcoming auction which is probably the strongest and most diverse we have had in London since I joined Christie’s in January 2009. Showing some of the most important art from Europe and America of the last fifty years, it also showcases the best art which has emerged across the globe over the last decade. Anchored by the re-discovery of the outstanding monumental self-portrait by Andy Warhol, it is also great to offer Jeff Koons’ seminal ‘Winter Bears’. An incredible life-like representation in wood which is child-size, this re-fashioning of the Adam and Eve story as cutesy Alpine bears clutching a heart shaped bag, where all seems too perfect to be true, represents one of Koons' greatest musings on the nature of modern relationships. It seems very apt to be offering this work in Valentine's week.”

REDISCOVERED SEMINAL LARGE SELF-PORTRAIT BY ANDY WARHOL (1928-1987)

Executed in 1967 and an addition to an historically important series of 10 self-portraits, the picture has been in a private collection since 1974 when it was acquired from Leo Castelli, Warhol’s primary dealer. It will be offered at the Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Auction on Wednesday 16 February 2011 in London and is expected to realise £3 million to £5 million. The picture was exhibited in public for the first time at Christie’s New York from 22 to 26 January 2011.

The present work is one of an historic series of 11 large-scale self-portraits executed in 1967, five of which are in museums (Tate, London; The Staatsgalerie Moderne Kunst, Munich; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; and two at the Detroit Institute for Arts). Such is the importance of the series that eight of the known works were included in the artist’s landmark retrospective at MOMA two years after his death in 1989. The present work is completely unpublished and has been in the same private collection since 1974.

Francis Outred, Head of Post-War and Contemporary Art, Christie’s Europe: “I’m incredibly excited at the prospect of offering this rediscovered masterpiece by Andy Warhol. At the time of its execution Warhol was at the peak of his creative powers and this very rare series of works were the largest self-portraits he had made. This work shows a classic image of the artist in an imposing, larger than life scale, with an extraordinary presence of thick, red paint. That 5 of the works from this series are in museums is a testament to their importance.”

The image of Warhol with his hand to his mouth is one of the most representative and iconic images of the artist. Warhol first used the image for a group of works in 1966 painted in a much smaller, life-size scale. The following year he used the same image in producing 11 monumental works in a large-scale format of six foot square, of which the present example is one. Six works from this series were exhibited in the American Pavilion at the 1967 International and Universal Exposition in Montreal which was visited by tens of millions of people, and which saw the portraits dominate an exhibition including works by Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein, Barnett Newman and Robert Rauschenberg.

By 1967 Warhol had reached a point in his career when he was internationally recognized as the most important and controversial figure in American Pop Art. The present series of self-portraits represent the high point of his career when he has achieved great wealth and fame, and when as a celebrity he brashly and confidently presented his own image in a truly monumental fashion to a global audience of millions.

SEMINAL WORK FROM JEFF KOONS

Another leading highlight is Winter Bears, 1988, a seminal work from Jeff Koons (b. 1955) highly acclaimed Banality series which launched him as an international art star in the late 1980s. At over 120 cm in height, the pair of child-sized sculptures, with their wide eyes, matching ‘his and hers’ clothing and cartoonish faces, wave to us and welcome us into the distinct world of Jeff Koons. If the Banality series was Koons’ idealised human civilisation or ‘Garden of Eden’, the Winter Bears represented Adam and Eve, the perfect depiction of human unity, as an Alpine European couple. Painstakingly carved out of wood which has then been polychromed in the traditional manner redolent of the great Medieval church sculpture in Germany, Koons has here lent a human and spiritual air to a cartoon-like creation. Their size and physicality lends them a thoroughly human quality which begins to jar the lines between cartoon and reality, and high and low art. Offered at auction for the first time having been in the present collection since 1994, it is expected to realise £2.5 million to £3.5 million. Another version of Winter Bears resides in the collection of the Tate Modern in London.

OTHER HIGHLIGHTS OF POST-WAR AND CONTEMPORARY ART EVENING AUCTION

Dina Amin, Director and Head of Evening Auction: “The global personality of the sale is reflected in works from China, Brazil, India and Iraq as well as major works from America and Europe. We are particularly pleased to have strong representations of Eduardo Chillida, Gerhard Richter and Lucio Fontana, alongside an extremely rare pioneering portrait by Martial Raysse.”

Italy

The dawn of conceptual art is represented at the auction through two Italian pioneers of the movement; Lucio Fontana (1899-1968) and Piero Manzoni (1933-1963). In the late 1950s and early 1960s, these two artists transformed the landscape of contemporary art with works that went on to inspire, among others, Warhol, Koons, Hirst and Gursky.

Concetto spaziale, 1961, by Lucio Fontana (1899-1968) is a sumptuous symphony of gold which explores the ideas and concepts of space and the immaterial in the same year that Yuri Gagarin would become the first man in space. From the artist’s breakthrough series Olii, which includes the celebrated Venice series of the same year, the present work relates very closely to Concetto spaziale, Venezia era tutta d’oro, now in the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid. It is expected to realise £2 million to £3 million. Also by the artist, Concetto spaziale, Attesa was executed in 1964 and is a beautiful, crisp minimalist work in white which emphasizes the purity of the slash against a background reminiscent of Manzoni, whom he had strongly influenced and who had died the previous year. It is expected to realise £1 million to £1.5 million.

Achrome by Piero Manzoni (1933-1963) is an early, majestic example of the artist’s most celebrated series of works. Executed in 1958-59, it is of a relatively large scale of 60cm by 80cm and is offered at auction for the first time. Created through the marriage of soaked kaolin and canvas, the work has been allowed to develop autonomously to mesmerizing effect. It is expected to realise £1.8 million to £2.5 million.

United States

Untitled by Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988) is an important, early work executed in 1981, the year in which the artist moved from the street to the studio. Acquired by the current Italian owner circa 1982, the year after it was painted, this important, early and rarely seen work captures the raw energy and power of the artist before his star rose in the art world. It is expected to realise £1 million to £1.5 million. ‘While I was there looking at the painting [the present work], the owner came closer to me and said: ‘When Basquiat knew that the painting was here, he came back to see it again. As soon as he saw the painting, he started crying. He said that he would never be able to do paintings like this again’ (T. Lo Porto, quoted in Phoebe Hoban, ‘Vita Lucente e Breve di un Genio dell’arte’, Rome, 2006).

France

L'année dernière à Capri (titre exotique) by Martial Raysse (b. 1936) is one of the artist’s most important works. Painted in 1962, it captures the point at which Nouveau Réalisme the movement that he pioneered, met with Pop Art in striking fashion. An exceptionally early milestone from the early history of Pop Art, this vibrant, larger than life work measures 184cm x 134.6cm and is offered at auction for the first time having been in the same private collection since circa 1975. It is expected to realise £1 million to 1.5 million with proceeds to benefit a charitable Foundation.

UK

Branded by Jenny Saville (b. 1970) is an epic, early portrait measuring 7 foot in height and 6 feet in width. Painted in 1992, it was one of the first works by the artist acquired by Charles Saatchi as he began to champion her work and it was subsequently exhibited in 2000 at the National Portrait Gallery’s Painting the Century: 101 Portrait Masterpieces 1900-2000. It was acquired at auction by the present owner in 2000 for a then world record price for the artist and is expected to realise £700,000 to £1,000,000. 

Arginine Decarboxylase by Damien Hirst (b. 1965) was executed in 1994, the year that he was nominated for the Turner Prize, and is one of the largest of the artist’s early, celebrated spot paintings. It is expected to realise £400,000 to £600,000.

Germany

Athanor by Anselm Kiefer (b. 1945) is a haunting and provocative presentation of a Reichstag-like building as a vast, ruined and burnt-out brick oven painted in 1991, the period soon after German reunification. A monumental and highly important work that represented both a warning and an image of hope and possibility to the German people, it is expected to realise £800,000 to £1,200,000.

Gerhard Richter (b. 1932) is widely regarded as the father of post-modern painting and the auction will offer 4 of his works each from different, influential periods in his career:

o Stadtbild, is an almost abstract townscape painted in 1969 as the artist moved away from the photo-realist style that had dominated his output during that decade (estimate: £400,000 to £600,000).

o Gilbert & George, 1975, is one of a series of six portraits of the celebrated British artists, two of which are in museums (Tate Modern, London and National Gallery, Canberra) (estimate: £600,000 to £800,000).

o Abstraktes Bild, 1990, is a mesmerizing work that represents the pinnacle of the artist’s move into abstraction (estimate: £1 million to £1.5 million)

o Ausschnitt (Kreutz), 1971, is a masterly painting, a photo-realist depiction of a brushstroke (estimate: £1.2 million to £1.8 million).

Untitled V, 1997, by Andreas Gursky (b. 1955) is one of the most important and recognisable of the artist’s works, showing 6 rows of sport shoes – a symbol representing consumerism and popular culture in the 1990s. Executed in 1997 and measuring 4 metres in length, the present work is one of an edition of only six, another of which established a then world auction record price for the artist in 2002. Offered from an important private European collection, it is expected to realise £800,000 to £1,200,000.

Spain

The auction will offer three outstanding works by Eduardo Chillida (1924-2002), each a powerful example of the artist’s command of form and space executed in three vastly differing materials. Lo profundo es el Aire XX (How Profound is the Air XX), 1998, is carved from a vast block of translucent alabaster in such a way that it mpoetically explores and demonstrates the conceptual penetration of solid material by light and space (estimate: £600,000 to £800,000); Elogio del Vacío V (Eulogy of the Void V), 1984, is made from cor-ten steel and expected to realise £350,000 to £450,000; and Mural G-46, a large and comparatively rare clay work from 1984 carries an estimate of £300,000 to £400,000.

Tres equis, 1990, by Miquel Barceló (b. 1957) belongs to one of the most celebrated series of paintings by the artist in which he portrays images and interpretations of Bullfights. Offered from an important European collection, it is expected to realise £400,000 to £600,000.

21st century global artists

A strong group of global artists from the 21st century will be presented at the auction including works by Charti Kher from India, Yan Pei Ming from China and Adriana Vãrejao from Brazil. Parede com Incisões a la Fontana II (Wall with Incisions a la Fontana II), 2001, is an important masterpiece by Adriana Vãrejao (b. 1964), one of Brazil’s most prominent contemporary artists. The work shows a vast representation of a tiled wall which has been dramatically punctuated with slashes which recall the work of Lucio Fontana. However, these slashes allow a glimpse through to an apparently fleshy background, giving the illusion of an existence beneath the surface. One of the most important works of South American contemporary art to be offered on a global auction platform, it is expected to realise £200,000 to £300,000.

The Post-War and Contemporary Art Day Auction will take place on Thursday 17 February 2011 and will offer 215 lots with a combined pre-sale estimate of £10,246,000 to £14,507,000, with individual estimates from £10,000.

*Estimates do not include buyer's premium

Sale 7955: Post-War & Contemporary Art Evening Auction, 16 February 2011

Sale 7956: Post-War & Contemporary Art Day Auction, 17 February 2011

CHRISTIE'S LONDON
www.christies.com