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Lot Essay
Created at the height of Gerhard Richter’s illustrious career, Abstraktes Bild encapsulates a crystallized embodiment of Richter's Abstrakte Bilder, the series widely recognized as the preeminent venture in abstract art of the past fifty years. Painted in 1990, the work reflects a mature and confident expression of Richter’s abstract practice in which serenity and violence, control and chance, invitation and refusal exist in delicate equilibrium. Executed with the hard-edged squeegee that has defined the dynamism of Richter’s abstractions since 1980s, a cool atmospheric ground of dark blue, emerald, and teal, soft sandy beige and peach is obscured by a dominant veil of bold impastos, resulting in a productive dichotomy of tension and tranquility which carefully unfolds in a delicate, emotional waltz. With the recent successful conclusion of the artist’s major retrospective at the Fondation Louis Vuitton, featuring over 270 works spanning six decades, Gerhard Richter sits firmly at the center of reignited global attention.
The years 1988–1992 mark a decisive high point of Richter’s abstract practice, when full mastery of the squeegee yielded his most sophisticated and ambitious Abstrakte Bilder. Executed following the major European and North American retrospectives of 1986-1988 and shortly before his 1991 Tate Gallery retrospective, Abstraktes Bild captures a pivotal threshold, carrying the mature confidence of technical mastery while revealing the restlessness of an artist still pushing limits, unwilling to let any aesthetic certainty harden into style.
Abstraktes Bild hints towards natural or landscape-like forms just long enough to invite emotional investment before immediately destabilizing that recognition. Rather than allowing a fixed reading, Richter maintains a sense of risk, as if commenting on the ephemeral nature of happiness. This instability of perception finds parallel in his own philosophy.
‘I pursue no objectives, no systems, no tendency; I have no program, no style, no direction... I steer clear of definitions. I don't know what I want. I am inconsistent, non-committal, passive; I like the indefinite, the boundless; I like continual uncertainty’ – Gerhard Richter (Robert Storr, Gerhard Richter, Gerhard Richter: Forty Years of Painting, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2002, p. 42)
The mind perceives shifting worlds as it drifts from horizontal to vertical, background to foreground, upon which thick impastos race across the canvas as if hurried forms traversing this realm. Hues shine through from beneath the dark veil continually suggest meaning only to inevitably dissolve. These are ‘pictures’ (Bilder) more than traditional paintings, occupying a post-photographic visual space that continues Richter’s long interrogation of representation, perception, and the status of the image after photography. In the words of the artist, paintings ‘gain their life from our desire to recognize something in them… which then, however, never really materialize.’ (G. Richter, quoted in S. Koldehoff, ‘Gerhard Richter. Die Macht der Malerei’, Art. Das Kunstmagazin, December 1999, p. 20).
Colours gently intertwine in harmonious tension, evoking an almost tropical calm – night air, water, or humid coastal light – without ever settling into a fixed landscape. The glimmering details evoke fleeting impressions of cresting waves and humid night air, evocative of Peter Doig’s dreamlike, atmospheric coastal landscapes. Yet, while Doig constructs an autobiography of his experiences, ultimately coalescing into recognizable worlds, Richter’s remain stubbornly open-ended, leaving viewers mystified and intrigued.
Over this colour field sits a dominant gray ‘veil’ of heavier, bold impastos which adds to the emotional depth of this ever-changing composition. Rather than aiming for pure Expressionist gestures or pure chance, Richter constructs a composition which feels both deliberate and inevitable. Each pass of the squeegee carries weight and consequence, intensified by the tight concentration of color and texture.
Looking back from the perspective of Richter's later achievements, Abstraktes Bild captures the artist at a pivotal moment. Painted at the dawn of the decade that would firmly secure his place at the forefront of contemporary art, it demonstrates both the assurance of a mature master and the curiosity of an artist still prepared to challenge every aesthetic certainty. Balancing serenity and disruption, control and chance, Abstraktes Bild stands as a distilled example of Richter's gift for teasing the viewer with a false sense of completion while inviting limitless discourse.
The years 1988–1992 mark a decisive high point of Richter’s abstract practice, when full mastery of the squeegee yielded his most sophisticated and ambitious Abstrakte Bilder. Executed following the major European and North American retrospectives of 1986-1988 and shortly before his 1991 Tate Gallery retrospective, Abstraktes Bild captures a pivotal threshold, carrying the mature confidence of technical mastery while revealing the restlessness of an artist still pushing limits, unwilling to let any aesthetic certainty harden into style.
Abstraktes Bild hints towards natural or landscape-like forms just long enough to invite emotional investment before immediately destabilizing that recognition. Rather than allowing a fixed reading, Richter maintains a sense of risk, as if commenting on the ephemeral nature of happiness. This instability of perception finds parallel in his own philosophy.
‘I pursue no objectives, no systems, no tendency; I have no program, no style, no direction... I steer clear of definitions. I don't know what I want. I am inconsistent, non-committal, passive; I like the indefinite, the boundless; I like continual uncertainty’ – Gerhard Richter (Robert Storr, Gerhard Richter, Gerhard Richter: Forty Years of Painting, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2002, p. 42)
The mind perceives shifting worlds as it drifts from horizontal to vertical, background to foreground, upon which thick impastos race across the canvas as if hurried forms traversing this realm. Hues shine through from beneath the dark veil continually suggest meaning only to inevitably dissolve. These are ‘pictures’ (Bilder) more than traditional paintings, occupying a post-photographic visual space that continues Richter’s long interrogation of representation, perception, and the status of the image after photography. In the words of the artist, paintings ‘gain their life from our desire to recognize something in them… which then, however, never really materialize.’ (G. Richter, quoted in S. Koldehoff, ‘Gerhard Richter. Die Macht der Malerei’, Art. Das Kunstmagazin, December 1999, p. 20).
Colours gently intertwine in harmonious tension, evoking an almost tropical calm – night air, water, or humid coastal light – without ever settling into a fixed landscape. The glimmering details evoke fleeting impressions of cresting waves and humid night air, evocative of Peter Doig’s dreamlike, atmospheric coastal landscapes. Yet, while Doig constructs an autobiography of his experiences, ultimately coalescing into recognizable worlds, Richter’s remain stubbornly open-ended, leaving viewers mystified and intrigued.
Over this colour field sits a dominant gray ‘veil’ of heavier, bold impastos which adds to the emotional depth of this ever-changing composition. Rather than aiming for pure Expressionist gestures or pure chance, Richter constructs a composition which feels both deliberate and inevitable. Each pass of the squeegee carries weight and consequence, intensified by the tight concentration of color and texture.
Looking back from the perspective of Richter's later achievements, Abstraktes Bild captures the artist at a pivotal moment. Painted at the dawn of the decade that would firmly secure his place at the forefront of contemporary art, it demonstrates both the assurance of a mature master and the curiosity of an artist still prepared to challenge every aesthetic certainty. Balancing serenity and disruption, control and chance, Abstraktes Bild stands as a distilled example of Richter's gift for teasing the viewer with a false sense of completion while inviting limitless discourse.