Mao

Details

GERHARD RICHTER (B. 1932)
Mao
collotype printed in black and purple, 1968, on wove paper, signed and dated in pencil, numbered 19/22 (there was also an edition of 478, approximately ten of which were signed), published by Galerie H. Hanover, lacking the publisher’s stamp on the reverse, the full sheet, soft cockling at the upper corners, generally in very good condition, framed
Image & Sheet 838 x 593 mm.

Literature

Butin 13

Special Notice

Artist's Resale Right ("Droit de Suite"). Artist's Resale Right Regulations 2006 apply to this lot, the buyer agrees to pay us an amount equal to the resale royalty provided for in those Regulations, and we undertake to the buyer to pay such amount to the artist's collection agent.

Brought to you by

Alice L'Estrange

alestrange@christies.com +44 (0)20 7752 3083

Lot Essay

Based on a 1967 newspaper photograph, Richter's haunting image of Mao is one of the defining portraits from the artist's early Capitalist Realism phase. Working primarily from newspaper and magazine photographs, Richter and fellow artist Sigmar Polke converted the imagery destined for popular consumption into ironic criticisms of contemporary German consumer culture. The artist's choice of collotype here lends the image a ghostly quality, whilst also re-enforcing a sensibility for inexpensive 'non art' which could be disseminated to a wide audience.

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