GERHARD RICHTER, Wald, 2008 [artist’s book]
24,6 x 17 x 3,4 cm
offset, German language, 396 pp., ill., 1.3 kilograms
HC with dust jacket
edition 2000
published by Walter Koenig Buchhandlung, Cologne, Germany
pristine condition
€ 400,- plus € 18,- Track & Trace registered mail
inv.GRich 714_979
Gerhard Richter’s artist’s book Wald assembles 286 photographs that he has taken since 2005 in a forest Hahnwald close to Cologne. These photographs focus on fallen trees and branches lying on the woodland’s ground, i.e. photos on vertical tree trunks and horizontally piled logs or diagonally broken branches.
Opposite to the typology of the photographs, Gerhard Richter used a text taken from Waldung – Magazin für Wald, Wandern, Wissen, No. 1/2006, a German magazine about forestry. The text is composed of computer generated ad randomness, without syntax or linguistic logic. What is left of the original content is a collage of loose words and a scattered vocabulary of the articles in the magazine.
History of prices:
The Archive is Limited, Amsterdam January 2021 € 400,- (price temporarily adapted to market)
The Archive is Limited, Amsterdam December 2020 € 465,-
Amazon, December 2020 US$ 450.-
www.store.bookdummypress.com, May 2019 US$ 300.-
Amazon, May 2019 US$ 450.-
Amazon, July 2016 between US$ 430.- and US$ 605.-
Gerhard Richter Style Tote Bags, 2015
each ca 65 x 25 x 8 cm
print on polyester bags: “Abstract Painting” I, V and IV
produced by RedBubble, San Francisco, USA
condition: mint
RedBubble Pty Ltd (a proprietary limited company abbreviated as ‘Pty Ltd’ is an Australian business structure) advertises in 2015 as follows: ‘Gerhard Richter Style is also available as Throw Pillows, Drawstring Bags, Art Prints, Canvas Prints, and Posters’. Here three tote bags inspired by abstract paintings of Gerhard Richter directly referring to subsequently “Abstracts Bild I”, “Abstracts Bild V” and “Abstracts Bild IV” [sic].
For some reason in 2018 these Style Tote Bags 2015 are not offered anymore by RedBubble Pty Ltd. In stead a company called Society6.com and FineArtAmerica.com have started to sell similar products.
In 2019 FineArtAmerica.com offers on its side only four products that are made with the consent of Gerhard Richter. Shown are two ‘Throw Pillows’ and two ‘Tote bags’ with reproduced details of two paintings.
RedBuble Pty Ltd sells not only in-the-style-of, but also merchandised Gerhard Richter products. See more at RedBubble Gerhard Richter products.
GERHARD RICHTER, 1024 Colours, 2015
ca 11 x 13 x 3 cm / 70 x 50 cm
pouch with polyester Tote bag, two attached labels
edition unknown
published by Loqi LLC, Saint Helena, USA
condition: mint
inv.GRich 874_876
Descriptions of the term tote or tate for bags, meaning bags “to carry”, can be traced back to 1900. During the 1950s, tote bags began to enter into the main culture. Women primarily utilized them as practical handheld bags because they didn’t require much care.
Merchandising art can be considered as a form of commercial appropriation. Previously merchandise products like that were usually put on the market after the death of famous artists like Vincent van Gogh or Piet Mondriaan. Since Appropriation art came into fashion, nowadays living artists accept this spin-off income as almost part of the art they are making, I guess. It is striking that commodities like tote bags or mugs are offered for just a few years at venues like museums and then they disappear completely and become part of history.
Here a detail of a painting of Gerhard Richter called “1024 Farben” has been reproduced on a synthetic shopping bag apparently authorized or sanctioned by the artist as a product design by Loqi, a Limited Liability Company.
GERHARD RICHTER, Die Welt, 2012
57,3 x 40 cm
digital pigment print on heavy quality paper
signed, numbered
edition 100
published by Die Welt, Berlin, Germany
mint condition
€ 7.800,- plus € 32,- Track & Trace registered mail
inv.GRich 401-pr
The own family is a recurring motive in the work of Gerhard Richter, opposite to newspaper clippings of people he doesn’t know and that he integrates in his paintings. He painted his first wife, Ema, he portrayed his daughter “Betty” as well as his “Uncle Rudi” and “Aunt Marianne”. The latter two family members were painted in relation to Nazi Germany.
The front page of the edition of the daily newspaper “Die Welt” depicts Richter’s second wife Sabine in a white bathrobe and his son Theo in a striped towel, although not recognizable. Painted in his renowned style of blurring a realistic image. Gerhard Richter remarked that it reminded him of Ingres’ painting ‘The Turkish Bath’ (the picture was taken in hotel “Waldhaus” in Sils-Maria).
History of prices:
ArtPrintX.com, Ravensburg, Germany € 8.714,- February 2024
Artsation GmbH, Munich, Germany € 10.400,- June 2016
Lempertz, Cologne, Germany € 5.208,- November 2015 (hammer price)
Artsation GmbH, Munich, Germany € 10.400,- December 2014
Artsation GmbH, Munich, Germany € 7.350,- September 2013
Artsation GmbH, Munich, Germany € 5.350,- August 2013
Die Welt, Berlin, Germany September (year of issue) € 2.000,-
Extra information:
GERHARD RICHTER, Die Welt of 5 October 2012
offset newspaper
29,5 x 40 cm
edition ca 251.500
splendid condition, folded to tabloid size as shown
published by Die Welt, Berlin, Germany
inv.GRich 000-pr
Untitled, n.d. [ca 1980-1990]
27 x 21 cm
offset, book page, signed in black ink
Collection Kees van Gelder, Amsterdam
€ 1.200,- + € 12,- Track & Trace registered mail
In 1980-1990’s an Autographengruppe in Bonn started to collect signatures of people well-known in sports, literature and the arts. Not only postcards but also pages of books were cut out of art catalogues that were signed on the spot during openings or more often requested by the club members through mail. In the early beginning of this century the collector’s group decided to sell little by little a part of their collection on Internet through eArt.de and eBay.
“This work is part of an extensive unique collection of catalogue pages and various printed matter signed by Gerhard Richter. The way the signatures are placed on the reproductions create a distance and deconstruction of the illusion of the image. A phenomenon that is very similar to the signed Goslar Kerze poster of 1988. His signature positioned straight on top of the image as an ultra short painter’s gesture – opposite to the hard labour of his elaborate swept paintings – high lightens the gap between the reproduced and the uniqueness of each handwriting apparently integrated in the image.
One of the most important characteristics is the way the artist creates a distance between emotions possibly aroused by an image and the way a painting is blurr painted. Or in this case is reproduced and then disturbed by the gesture of a hand writing. The question about what the reproduced represents is put aside or at least put on hold by showing us two separate moments of two different ‘images’. This is opposite to what Roland Barthes called “punktum”. The depicted arouses direct emotions of recognition or disgust, caused by a meaning that pops up before we realize this. Nothing is in the way and these meanings suddenly appear to come out of the photo, id est here out of the abstract picture. This is in contrast to what Barthes calls the ‘studium’, which refers to the longing of a search of meanings in a picture. In fact it is ajourning the pass of a judgement on what is seen until the addition sum is made. In his catalogue pages, each signed on loose prints, the two never seem to come together due to the different levels and meaning of each ‘image’. The abstract painting here reproduced in print never reconciles with the image of authorization a signiture stands for. The viewer has to look to the dimension of the reproduced being confronted again and again with the un-pictorial “standard sweep curtain” of Richter’s signature.”
Kees van Gelder, October 2006
GERHARD RICHTER, Sindbad, 2010
32 x 26,4 x 1,8 cm
artist’s book, 116 pp.: silkscreen, lacquered pages, incl. banderole 1,4 kilograms
limited edition 800
published by Buchhandlung Walther Koenig, Cologne, Germany mint condition, cellophane seal as issued
€ 1.985,- plus € 18,- Track & Trace registered mail
inv.GR 000-pr
Originally “Sindbad” is the title of a series of 98 pictures, painted on the back of panes of glass in 30 x 24 cm format, from 2008. In their first exhibition, Richter paired them as diptychs, like 49 double pages.
The concept of this book was already clear at the time of their painting. Richter decided to reproduce all of the pictures in original format, cut over three pages, leaving a bar of two centimetres blank at the binding. This gives the book its form. The seven texts about ‘Sinbad the Sailor’, each set in three columns over double pages, give structure to the extensive, “fairytale” series. The banderole around the book contains an introduction to the journey. Every detail – paper, typography, layout and flow of the book – was decided by the artist. “Sinbad” (in German “Sindbad”) is without doubt a further highlight in Gerhard Richter’s series of artist’s books.
Sindbad is the title of a series of 98 lacquer pictures made in 2008, painted on the back of 12 x 10-inch panes of glass. For their first public exhibition, Richter paired them as 49 diptychs, which resembled 49 book-page spreads, pointing towards the possible ideal incarnation of these works as a large-format artist’s book. Using silkscreen printing, this volume reproduces all 98 of the pictures at their original dimensions. Seven texts, on the theme of Sinbad the Sailor (in German only), are interleaved with these magnificent images, and a bellyband around the book offers a concise introduction to the work.
History of prices:
Café Lehmitz, Cologne, Germany € 1.780,- January 2023
Buchhandlung Walter Koenig, Cologne € 1.800,- December 2022
Antiquariat Heinzelmännchen, Stuttgart, Germany US$ 1,512.- December 2022
eBay-ashbinx74, Bruton, UK € 1.695,- July 2021
Catawiki, Assen, Netherlands € 440,- 14 December 2020 (hammer price)
Buchhandlung Walter Koenig, Cologne € 1.800,- March 2020
eBay-ashbinx74, Bruton, UK € 1.588,- July 2020
Buchhandlung Walter Koenig, Cologne € 1.800,- October 2019
Buchhandlung Walter Koenig, Cologne € 680,- March 2017
Antiquariat Heuberger, Cologne € 650,- January 2017
Buchhandlung Walter Koenig, Cologne € 680,- November 2014
GERHARD RICHTER, War Cut, 2004
25 x 21 cm
hard cover, 340 pp.
edition 2000; nrs 1-200 signed with felt-tip pen on penultimate page, numbered
2,000 copies, numbered with stamp on the penultimate page, of these a few copies are also signed, dated and marked h.c. in felt-tip pen on the penultimate page,
150 copies, signed, dated and numbered in blue ballpoint on penultimate page
published by Walther Koenig, Cologne, 2004 here unsigned
inv.GR 000-pr
In May 2002, Gerhard Richter photographed 216 details of his “Abstraktes Bild Nr 648-2”, 1987. Working over a period of several weeks, Richter combined these 10 x 15 cm details with 165 texts on the Iraq war, published in the German FAZ newspaper on March 20 and 21. ‘War Cut’ follows an ever denser rhythm in which texts and gaps take up the same amount of space as the pictures, creating a strictly composed work of open and closed layouts and their mirror images. A conceptual artist’s book about the war in Iraq and one may say war in general communicated through newspapers.
Extra information:
In 2012 a second edition in English was published with a different book cover:
History of prices – signed version edition 200
Bengtsson Fine Arts, Landskrona, Sweden $ 2700.- November 2010
GERHARD RICHTER Schwarz, Rot, Gold II, 1998
21 x 29,7 x 1,3 cm /8.27×11.69 inches
synthetic resin paint behind glass, hard fiberboard mount, metal parts
4 different shades of each colour
edition of a unique series 64 + 3 AP
verso signed, dated on sticker
published by Galerie Fred Jahn, Munich, Germany
out of stock
This edition is marked with a three digit combination in felt-tip pen on reverse and each multiple with inv.id WV-Nr. 855-8 was made in conjunction with ‘Schwarz, Rot, Gold’ from 1999, a commissioned work by the German Bundestag for the Reichstag building in Berlin, Germany.
History of prices:
Auction Ketterer Kunst, Munich, Germany € 5.000,- / $ 6,657.- 24 April 2010
Auction Van Ham, Cologne, Germany € 6.200,- / $ 8,300.- June 2011
GERHARD RICHTER, Hood, 1996
44 x 43,7 cm / 17.3 х 17.2 inches
offset, cardboard
edition 110 + 20 AP, i.e. 50 numbered, signed and dated and 60 numbered, signed and marked exclusively for Dokumenta X in 1997
signed, numbered, dated
not available
This print is based on a photograph taken from the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. The newspaper image was painted over, photographed and then printed in offset.
History of prices:
Christie’s, New York, US$ 2,125.- 7-8 February 2008
Christie’s, London, US$ 2,983.- 18 September 2013
GERHARD RICHTER, Tassen, Untertassen und Teller, 1992
various diameters between 26 – 14,5 cm
porcelain, 42 parts
6 large plates, 6 dinner plates, 6 soup cups with saucers, 6 coffee cups and 6 tea cups with saucers, 6 cake plates
verso: each part signed and dated burnt in the glazing
published by Edition Obelisco, Cologne, Germany
