| sarramkrop |
03.19.2007 03:55 PM |
Lot 32, "Drei Kerzen" by Gerhard Richter, oil on canvas, 49 1/4 by 59 1/2 inches, 1982
Whereas Christie's has several very good works in different styles by Gerhard Richter (b. 1932) in its Post-War auction this week (see The City Review article on the Post-War evening auction May 16, 2001 at Christie's), this auction offers yet another dimension to his oeuvre with Lot 32, "Drei Kerzen," a 49 ¼-by-59 ½-inch oil on canvas that was executed in 1982. The painting of three lit candles against a dark background has been consigned from the Collection of Camille Oliver-Hoffmann and has an ambitious estimate of $4,000,000 to $6,000,000. It sold $5,395,750, breaking the previous world auction record for Richter of $4,956,000.
The catalogue provides the following commentary on this lot:
"Arguably, more than any other artist, Richter has developed the art of painting; blurring the boundaries between form and content, between Sign and Signifier on the canvas. Richter's concern was not so much how to make marks, but why one should develop such marks in the context of an antagonism between representation and re-presentation. The only reality was not the image, but the process. For Richter, painting became an ethereal exploration, with the canvas as the laboratory; his tools thus became the means to conjure some of the most magical images of this period.The dialogue between painterly abstraction and romanticized realism related to photography is best exemplified in the series of 32 works depicting skulls and candles, executed by Richter between 1982 and 1983. Drei Kerzen, the largest of these examples and the only canvas to depict three candles, must be seen as a seminal work in Richter's oeuvre. Like Rembrandt's famous etching of the three trees, the candles, combined with Richter's delicious interplay of light and shade, is reminiscent of the Crucifixion scene. This sense of fate links the Candle paintings to the Romantic overtones first expressed in Richter's Nature paintings at the end of the1960s.Richter's Drei Kerzen, cannot therefore be read literally as a Still Life. The image becomes the vehicle for a more interesting investigation into the veracity of `realistic images', and an exploration into the role of light in painting.the present work is a masterpiece of tonal interplay. The fluid, liquid brushwork, so tightly controlled by Richter, is mesmerizing. This wonderfully poised and precise canvas, executed with a stunning refinement of technique and a rare impact of vision, stands out as a masterpiece." |
