Gerhard Richter - Focus Report
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Fabian Svarnas
on behalf of the ArtExplored team
editorial@artexploredcom
After examining the market for Claude Monet’s Water Lilies in our
first Focus Report, we now turn to another influential artist and
one of the highest selling at auction: Gerhard Richter.
Richter has significantly impacted the art scene for over six
decades. Blurring the lines between representational images and
abstract forms, he continually challenged painting by exploring
new possibilities. Now 92 years old, Richter mainly focuses on his
work on paper, having stopped painting in 2017.
His Monumental Abstrakte Bilder (Abstract Paintings), created
between 1985 and 1994, fetch almost all of Richter’s highest
prices at auction. They showcase the artist’s signature technique,
which he developed then, and symbolise the height of his pictorial
research. During this time, Richter began prominently utilising a
squeegee, a sizable flat tool, dragging it methodically across the
canvas to create unpredictable colour formations. While they
don’t depict visual reality, they might represent something we
cannot see. These paintings are also rare in their format of 200
cm in height or more. Between 1985 and 1994, Richter made less
than 200 Monumental Abstrakte Bilder, according to his online
catalogue raisonné.
Through this Focus Report, explore the auction history of these
paintings, which form part of the highest end of the contemporary
art market.
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