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Lot Essay
‘Since the heavens
and earth were parted,
it has stood, godlike,
lofty and noble,
the high peak of Fuji’
YAMABE NO AKAHITO, ‘ON LOOKING AT MOUNT FUJI’, 8TH CENTURY AD
‘Picturing things, taking a view, is what makes us human; art is making sense and giving shape to that sense’
GERHARD RICHTER
The present work is a spectacular example of Gerhard Richter’s Fuji series. This sequence of 110 unique paintings was conceived in 1996 to aid the Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich, in its purchase of Atlas – a collection of photographs, newspaper cuttings and sketches that the artist has been assembling since the mid- 1960s. Much as Atlas discloses Richter’s inspirations and working method, the Fuji works tell the story of their creation in shifting layers of addition and concealment. Displaying Richter’s distinctive abstract language on an intimate scale, each painting presents an exuberant chromatic fusion of red, orange and viridian oil paint on aluminium, overlaid with a squeegeed layer of white that drags the surface into symphonic splendour. Gliding transitions of colour are accompanied by abrupt breaks that reveal shimmering gradients beneath, creating the electric dialogue between chance and control that distinguishes Richter’s work.
As variations on a theme, the Fuji paintings appropriately echo the hues of Katsushika Hokusai’s iconic woodblock series 36 Views of Mount Fuji (1826-33). Where Hokusai depicted the mountain from multiple viewpoints and varying weather conditions, Richter exults in the infinite spectra of chromatic combination and textural nuance occasioned by his process. From a strictly defined palette he conjures an astonishing range of radiant tonal relationships: surfs of seafoam green offset flickering zones of fiery depth; canyons of malachite plunge through snow-bright swathes of white. ‘I want to end up with a picture that I haven’t planned,’ Richter has said. ‘This method of arbitrary choice, chance, inspiration and destruction may produce a specific type of picture, but it never produces a predetermined picture. Each picture has to evolve out of a painterly or visual logic: it has to emerge as if inevitably’ (G. Richter, quoted in D. Elger, Gerhard Richter: A Life in Painting, Chicago 2009, p. 312). In their vivid, jewel-like beauty, these works capture the majesty of an artist who has mastered his medium.
and earth were parted,
it has stood, godlike,
lofty and noble,
the high peak of Fuji’
YAMABE NO AKAHITO, ‘ON LOOKING AT MOUNT FUJI’, 8TH CENTURY AD
‘Picturing things, taking a view, is what makes us human; art is making sense and giving shape to that sense’
GERHARD RICHTER
The present work is a spectacular example of Gerhard Richter’s Fuji series. This sequence of 110 unique paintings was conceived in 1996 to aid the Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich, in its purchase of Atlas – a collection of photographs, newspaper cuttings and sketches that the artist has been assembling since the mid- 1960s. Much as Atlas discloses Richter’s inspirations and working method, the Fuji works tell the story of their creation in shifting layers of addition and concealment. Displaying Richter’s distinctive abstract language on an intimate scale, each painting presents an exuberant chromatic fusion of red, orange and viridian oil paint on aluminium, overlaid with a squeegeed layer of white that drags the surface into symphonic splendour. Gliding transitions of colour are accompanied by abrupt breaks that reveal shimmering gradients beneath, creating the electric dialogue between chance and control that distinguishes Richter’s work.
As variations on a theme, the Fuji paintings appropriately echo the hues of Katsushika Hokusai’s iconic woodblock series 36 Views of Mount Fuji (1826-33). Where Hokusai depicted the mountain from multiple viewpoints and varying weather conditions, Richter exults in the infinite spectra of chromatic combination and textural nuance occasioned by his process. From a strictly defined palette he conjures an astonishing range of radiant tonal relationships: surfs of seafoam green offset flickering zones of fiery depth; canyons of malachite plunge through snow-bright swathes of white. ‘I want to end up with a picture that I haven’t planned,’ Richter has said. ‘This method of arbitrary choice, chance, inspiration and destruction may produce a specific type of picture, but it never produces a predetermined picture. Each picture has to evolve out of a painterly or visual logic: it has to emerge as if inevitably’ (G. Richter, quoted in D. Elger, Gerhard Richter: A Life in Painting, Chicago 2009, p. 312). In their vivid, jewel-like beauty, these works capture the majesty of an artist who has mastered his medium.