Schwarz, Rot, Gold II (Black, Red, Gold II)

Schwarz, Rot, Gold II (1998) is a painting on glass by Gerhard Richter, from an edition made in conjunction with a large painting of the same title commissioned for the Reichstag building in Berlin. He created the series using sixty-four possible permutations of the German flag’s colours: four shades of black, four shades of red, and four shades of gold. Each is marked on the back with a three-digit number, which indicates which of the four shades of each colour it contains. Each one of the sixty-four works thus has its own unique colouring; the present lot is designated 4.3.1, meaning that it is composed in the fourth shade of black, the third shade of red, and the first shade of gold. Richter’s typically subtle intervention makes the flag a beautiful, mutable object that remains instantly recognisable through its varied tonal incarnations, suggesting a nuanced vision of national identity.