1992
Oil on Canvas
52 x 62 cm
Signed on the reverse: Richter in German, dated 1992 and numbered 754-2
Estimate TWD 15,000,000-24,000,000
USD 492,100-787,400
HKD 0-0
Hammer Price TWD 16,800,000
USD 552,087
HKD 4,444,444
Provenance：1. Marian Goodman Gallery, New York, USA 2. Private Collection, United States 3. Christie\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
Illustrated：1. "Bonn, Kunst-und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Gerhard Richter: Catalogue Raisonné 1962-1993, Vol. III, exh. cat.," Elger Dietmar/ ed., Ostfildern-Ruit, Germany, 1993, Page 193, no. 754-2 2. "Gerhard Richter: Catalogue Raisonné, 1988-1994, Vol. 4," Elger Dietmar/ ed., Ostfildern-Ruit, Germany, 2015, Page 424, no. 754-2
Exhibition：
Exposition：This work is included on the artist\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s official website.
“Never blind chance: it’s a chance that is always planned, but also always surprising. And I need it in order to carry on, in order to eradicate my mistakes, to destroy what I’ve worked out wrong, to introduce something different and disruptive.”
Gerhard Richter in conversation with Benjamin H. D. Buchloch in 1986, Gerhard Richter – Text: Writings and Interviews
In the 1960s, the post WWII Gerhard Richter started to eradicate all traces of himself as he veered into a series of photorealistic paintings inspired by news flyers, snapshots and historical events. His works silenced the skepticism towards the use of photographic techniques in post-modern art in the 20th century. The series balances the representation of sensory perception derived from objective experiences with his own interpretation of the figurative. The result forged for him an uncharted path. Despite increasing attention, his quest for the quintessential truth and high standards never wavered and continued pushing him to new heights. The period between 1976, the beginning of his abstract series focusing on photographic close-ups, and the 1980s, the maturity and apex of this abstraction, reflects his innate and profound contemplation towards life under totalitarianism. His diverse oeuvre weaves a common thread, the image de pensée, the physical embodiment of the essence of Richter’s thoughts.
Richter used the squeegee for the first time in a 1980 painting he numbered 456-1, where strokes with pictorial roots layer and smear, forming textural complexity that mesmerizes. The technique translates changes in Richter’s sensory perceptions into a realm for interplay between his carefully structured composition and serendipity, catalyzing a reaction that one would naturally associate with the works of American artist, Jackson Pollock. However, while Pollock’s paintings are organic and sensory chronicles of time and space, Richter’s are post-experience representations contrary to Pollock’s reductive approach. Revered internationally as a master, his seminal stature in art history is further solidified by the consistent philosophical voice in his works.
Abstraktes Bild, numbered 754-2, was created in 1992. Born during his maturing period, the piece is characteristically dominated by the decisive and weighty lines that stabilize the composition. Light traverses through the vertical columns, enhancing the three-dimensionality through layers of the solid and the void while perpetuating an ever-morphing image. The dark red, which would have appeared agitating to the viewers, are anchored down by the line slanting beneath at a 120-degree angle. Splashes of light form organically as the squeegee leaves scrape marks from right to left, blurring the boundary between his deliberate maneuvers and random occurrences. Richter successfully conveyed not merely the presence of absence, but the pre- and post-experience perceptions through the textural complexity and fluidity built upon the scrapes, smudges, incisions and swaths of pigments. The varying viewing distance reconstructs the image incessantly, which sails between the light and shadow; solid and void; erasure and accretion, furthering even the infinity of time and space. What lies within? An image, memory, prose or the truth? The closer we get, the more ambiguous it is. Although, this dose of ambiguity is precisely what distills the authenticity. As Richter puts it, his intends “to gain access to all that is genuine, richer, more alive: to what is beyond my understanding” (Gerhard Richter, ‘Notes 1985’ in Hans-Ulrich Obrist ed., Gerhard Richter: The Daily Practice of Painting, Writings 1962-1993, p. 119).
While Richter’s paintings are known to be among the most expensive in the world, his art and life also carry academic weight in the art discipline. No reputable entities, be it museums, foundations or collectors, would call their art collections complete without Richter’s paintings. Among entities dedicating exhibitions to Richter is the Louis Vuitton Foundation, which has devoted a gallery to showcase its avid collection of his works. The latest solo exhibition featuring this monumental artist was held in the Tokyo National Museum of Modern Art in 2022. The retrospective combs through over one hundred pieces of art created across the span of his career, which are significant memory markers in history. With pieces rarely seen in public and works personally donated by the artist, the event made major splashes in the international art scene.
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