Untitled, 2.4.91

Executed about two years prior to the dissolution of his marriage to multimedia artist Isa Genzken, Gerhard Richter’s Untitled, 2.4.91 is a product of their illustrious but ill-fated relationship. First meeting when Richter was Genzken’s professor at the Dusseldorf Art Academy, the two married in 1982 and divorced around 1993. Using his signature squeegee technique over a photograph of Genzken, Richter effaces and beautifies the image, resulting in a complex and loaded portrait that serves to document the waning years of their relationship. As a combination of Richter's portraiture and his abstract work, Untitled, 2.4.91 is a revealing, intimate example of the artist's celebrated practice.