GERHARD RICHTER, cake plate, 1992 [cake plate]

GERHARD RICHTER, cake plate, 1992
diameters 21 cm
porcelain
signed and dated in the glazing
published by Edition Obelisco, Cologne, Germany
p.o.r.

History of prices:
eBay/19peter50, Aachen, Germany € 570,- 12 January 2021
eBay, Aachen, Germany € 650,- 26 March 2020
eBay, Mildenitz, Germany € 400,- 9 March 2020

GERHARD RICHTER, Abstract Painting 825-II, 69 Details, 1996 (signed, stamp numbered)

GERHARD RICHTER, Abstract Painting 825-II, 69 Details, 1996
19,2 x 12,3 x 1,5 cm (18,4 x 12,3)
artist’s book, English, HC, including slipcase
signed with fountain pen, stamp numbered, here number 771
edition 1000, of which 100 signed copies issued in English as Special Edition
published by Insel Verlag / for this edition Scalo, Zurich-Berlin-New York, USA
mint
€ 780,- plus € 15,- Track & Trace registered mail
inv.GRich 000-pr

This artist’s book is part of a Special Edition:
850 copies in German; 50 copies in French; 100 copies in English, signed and ink stamp numbered on the last page, subtitled on the fifth page: ‘Für Elise’;
(32 copies, signed in ink, subtitled on the fifth page: ‘Für Elise’, marked in felt-tip pen on the last page: h.c.)
inv.GRich 667

Regular edition: 4,090 copies in German, 5,000 copies in English

 

Afterword in English by Hans Ulrich Obrist.

 

History of prices:
Antiquariat/Galerie Buchholz, Cologne, Germany € 680,- 16 April 2020 (‘Für Elise’)
Buchhandlung Klaus Bittner, Cologne, Germany € 498,- 16 April 2020
Antiquariat Udo Schwörer, Pforzheim, Germany € 450,- 16 April 2020
Dashwood Books, New York, USA US$ 400,- 16 April 2020
eBay-zwilling90, Morfelden-Waldorf, Germany € 86,05 February 2007
eBay-marc79, Hannover, Germany € 91,37 August 2005
eBay-marc79, Hannover, Germany US$ 152.51 3 February 2004

GERHARD RICHTER, Schwarz, Rot, Gold I, 1998

GERHARD RICHTER, Schwarz, Rot, Gold I, 1998
61,5 x 47,5 cm (42 x 29,7)
oil paint on canvas, framed
series of 128 unique collages + 6 AP
published by Texte zur Kunst, Cologne, Germany
pristine
not available

 

Texte zur Kunst: “Richter hat sich in seiner Edition für Texte zur Kunst der Collagentechnik bedient, so als wolle er den Eindruck einer geschlossenen Bildoberfläche unterlaufen, indem er bemalte Farbbahnen zerschnitt und aneinanderklebte. Da es sich bei dieser Arbeit um eine Variante über die Deutschlandfahne handelt – Richters Entwurf für den Berliner Bundestag -, liegt eine bestimmte Interpretationsebene nahe: Das Symbol für die Idee nationaler Einheit wird aufgebrochen und dadurch quasi seiner Essenz beraubt. Dieser Auflösungsprozess wird durch das Moment der Serialisierung wie durch leichte Farbabweichungen unterstrichen: „Schwarz”, „Rot” und „Gold” werden in jeweils vier Abstufungen kombiniert und sind demnach nur annäherungsweise repräsentiert. So variiert etwa das „Gold” zwischen Ocker und Senffarben”.

History of prices:
Adam Art Auction, Amsterdam May 2019 € 10.000,- (hammer price)
Lempertz Auktion, Germany 1 June 2017 € 23.560,- (hammer price)
Lempertz Auktion, Germany 4 June 2016 € 16.740,- (hammer price)
Lempertz Auktion, Germany 23 May 2012 € 10.370,- (hammer price)
Ketterer Kunst, Munich, Germany 26 March 2004 € 3.803,- incl. 17% premium

GERHARD RICHTER, Goslar Kerze, 1988 [signed poster, text]

GERHARD RICHTER, Goslar Kerze, 1988
94 x 99 cm (89,5 x 95)
text on poster:
offset on thin paper, handmade varnished frame
signed
edition unknown (possibly ca 100 signed with text)
published by Mönchehaus-Museum für moderne Kunst, Goslar, Germany
pristine condition, skillfully framed and as such extremely rare
provenance Artax, Düsseldorf, Germany
€ 8.500,- plus courier costs

GERHARD RICHTER, November, 2013

GERHARD RICHTER, November, 2013
31,5 x 21,8 cm
offset
edition 800
signed, numbered
published by Heni Publishing, London, England
pristine

sold out

Richter produced NOVEMBER, a series of 54 works in ink. These works were created using a variety of ways to manipulate the consistency of ink and its flow on highly absorbent paper. The ink permeated through the sheets creating two related images, one on the front and one on the back of each of the 27 sheets used. In some cases Richter also applied lacquer or pencil.
Richter had a complete set of facsimiles made, so both sides of the 27 sheets could be viewed at the same time. However, the sequence of mirrored pairs of images is disrupted, as some of the images have been rotated by 180 degrees. The book displays the images of the pairs, one on the front and one on the back of each page and ends with an overview of all 54 works.

In the artist’s book November Richter not only made use of sheets with a mirror image of the motif on the reverse; in some cases the ink that had soaked through layers of sheets created what looked like visual echoes. His manipulation of the given sequence was distinctly restrained: for instance, November 2nd (recto) is placed upside down, disturbing the regularity of the mirror-image idea. In addition to this, the obscuring over-painting of this same sheet and of November 3rd draws attention to the differences between the two, rather than to any repetition. In the case of the pairs of sheets dated November 4th and 5th, the verso images are again rotated by 180º; it also appears that the sequence of front and back has been reversed in the case of the latter. The given reflections are thus just the point of departure for an interlocking web of playfulness, which in turn creates simultaneity from a temporal and material sequence. In the same way that original and facsimile per sheet and page are barely distinguishable, any distinctive qualities in the different ink markings are all but impossible to discern – with the initial disposition on one side and copy, duplicate and replica on the other. It has become a work in itself.

History of prices:
Antiquariat an der Uni Muenchen, Munich, Germany € 1.500,- January 2021
The Archive is Limited, Amsterdam   € 950,- December 2020
Tate Museum, London, England   € 470,- / GBP 400.- April 2013
New Art Editions € 800,- March 2017

GERHARD RICHTER, S. mit Kind, 1993 [poster]

GERHARD RICHTER
S. mit Kind, 1993
99,5 x 67,5 cm
offset on firm paper, poster
signed
published by Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany 1993
sold

History of prices:
The Archive is Limited, Amsterdam € 250,- 23 August 2019
Auktionshaus Stahl, Hamburg, Germany € 725,- 18 September 2010
See also Artnet

GERHARD RICHTER, Eis, 2016 [artist’s book – facsimile]

GRichter2015-book-eis_cover700

GERHARD RICHTER, Eis, 2016
19,5 x 11,5 cm
artist’s book, offset, 144 pp., ca 320 grams
46 by hand tipped-in black and white images
limited edition 350
published by Salon Verlag, Cologne, Germany
mint
inv. GRich 309
€ 385,- plus € 18,- Track & Trace registered EU mail

This book is a facsimile of Gerhard Richter’s original design for ‘Eis’, an artist’s book first published by Galeria Pieroni in 1981. The brown yellowish glue stains shining through the pages of that dummy are reproduced here, as an extra factual layer. The 46 pictures – glued in the middle of the book – are reproductions of photos Richter took in Greenland.

The most interesting contribution Gerhard Richter has managed to deliver in the comtemporary visual arts is the uninterpreted image, i.e. an image without interpretation, morality or emotion. A picture made with the objectifying camera leads to a matter of pictorial fact. Since we are used to read images within a fraction of a second Richter manipulates his images by blurring them, and so creating a cooler distance from the viewer looking at an image. Due to this added misty curtain it is more difficult to detect what is going on. Also it blocks a first fast reading. What Emmanuel Kant analysed for the theory of knowledge is what Gerhard Richter analysed for the pictorial phenomenology, i.e. knowledge a priori (knowledge one is born with) or a posteriori (knowledge achieved by experience) is comparable to Richter’s observation that a photo is empty (no thoughts, no ideology, no theme, no order) or loaded (with ethics, aesthetics, etc.).
Since Gerhard Richter is convinced that the objectivity of the (snapshot) photo has to be helped by providing it with manipulations of distance, he states that painting a photo is the best way to bring its emptiness of no position to perfection.

Reading ‘Eis’ against the background of the above one may say that Richter’s idea to make this artist’s book with no beginning and no ending is expressing his will to neutralise a fixed direction of reading (in fact, there are no texts to read). Black and white images are glued in and some are shown upside down towards each other, depending from where you start reading the book. After some confusion one may accept its awkwardness of how to read on and a kind of reader’s ‘floating’ is created. This awareness of being in a cloud is the detached situation Richter is looking for. In German one would say: “Richter’s richtige Richtung” leading to a void in which there is no urge anymore to judge. The reader finds himself in a pictoriality of no beginning and no ending.

© KvG augustus 2016

 

GRichter2015-book-eis_page700

The tipped-in images in the middle seen from the book edge:
GRichter2015-book-eis_side700

History of prices:
eBay-carolinanitsch, New York, USA US$ 1,500.- September 2023
Studio Bibliografico Marini, Valenzano, Italy € 439,- September 2023
Galerie Buchholz, Cologne, Germany € 680,- September 2023
eBay-carolinanitsch, New York, USA US$ 900.- December 2022
Galerie Buchholz, Cologne, Germany US$ 351.- December 2022
eBay Kleinanzeigen-Christian, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Sankt-Augustin, Germany € 550,-
July 2022
Studio Bibliografica Marini, Rome, Italy € 350,- July 2022
eBay-carolinanitsch, New York, USA US$ 900.- December 2021
Antiquariat Querido-Frank Hermann, Düsseldorf, Germany US$ 255.- December 2021
Buchhandlung Walther König, Cologne, Germany € 240,- July 2021
Antiquariat Querido-Frank Hermann, Düsseldorf, Germany € 220,- April 2020