Beschreibung:

10 A Tale of Two Cities: Property from the Estate of Howard Karshan Gerhard Richter Follow Hände signed, numbered and dated '12 Richter 63' on the reverse oil on canvas, in artist's frame 30.9 x 45.9 cm (12 1/8 x 18 1/8 in.) Painted in 1963.
Provenance Galerie Bernd Lutze, Friedrichshafen Galerie Paul Maenz, Cologne Private Collection, Cologne Anthony d'Offay Gallery, London Acquired from the above by the late owner in July 1994 Exhibited Friedrichshafen, Galerie Bernd Lutze, Gerhard Richter Bilder und Druckgraphik 1962-1978. Teil II , 16 March - 26 May 1979 Friedrichshafen, Galerie Bernd Lutze, Gerhard Richter Bilder und Druckgraphik 1962-1978. Teil I , 9 May - 23 June 1979 Literature Gerhard Richter 36. Biennale di Venezia , exh. cat., German Pavilion, 1972, no. 12, p. 37 1945-1985: Kunst in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland , exh. cat., Neue Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, 1985, p. 248 Gerhard Richter Bilder Paintings 1962-1985 , exh. cat., Städtische Kunsthalle Düsseldorf; Nationalgalerie Berlin, Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz; Kunsthalle Bern; Vienna, Museum Moderner Kunst/Museum des 20. Jahrhunderts, 1986, no. 12, pp. 6, 357 (illustrated, p. 6) Benjamin Buchloh, ed., Gerhard Richter Werkübersicht Catalogue raisonné 1962-1993, vol. III , Ostfildern-Ruit, 1993, no. 12, pp. 7, 148 (illustrated, p. 7) Dietmar Elger, Gerhard Richter Catalogue Raisonné, vol. I, nos. 1-198, 1962-1968, Ostfildern-Ruit, 2011, no. 12, p. 68 (illustrated) Catalogue Essay Hände , Gerhard Richter’s characteristically blurred composition, is a striking early epitome of the artist’s iconic and technically astute photo realist paintings of the 1960s. Synthesising photography and painting, through his graceful grey hues and use of sfumato, Richter presents a new perspective on perception and the validity of visual representation. The present work captures the allegorical nature of an ephemeral moment in time and anticipates the artist’s large-scale photo paintings and abstract works such as Onkel Rudi (Lidice Collection, Lidice) and Grau (Museum Wiesbaden). Having fled East Germany, in 1961 Richter enrolled at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf where he was exposed to strands of pre-and post-war western modernism. Following his move from the East, Richter’s marked change in style, from Social Realism and towards photo realistic painting, saw the artist working on increasingly abstract compositions such as Tisch , 1962 (Harvard Art Museum, Boston) and Wunde 16 , 1962. This transition culminated in 1962, when Richter ‘started to paint like crazy, from figurative to abstract.' He notes 'after a year, I put it all on a bonfire in the courtyard of the academy…I felt the work had to be burned because people were already taking things and paintings were starting to circulate. I had to prevent that because I realized it was time to start from scratch. Photographs were the way forward’ (Gerhard Richter quoted in Michael Kimmelman, ‘Gerhard Richter: An Artist Beyond Isms’, New York Times Magazine , 27 January 2002, p. 44). In Dusseldorf, surrounded by the originality and dialogue of fellow co-founders of the Capitalist Realist movement, namely Sigmar Polke Konrad Lueg (later Konrad Fischer), Manfred Kuttner Joseph Beuys and the artists of the confrontational Fluxus movement, Richter was engrossed with provocative narratives. ‘It [Fluxus] inspired me to try out some real nonsense, like copying photographs in oil paint’ (Gerhard Richter and Dorothea Dietrich, 'Gerhard Richter. An Interview', in The Print Collector’s Newsletter , September/October, 1985). Thus, between 1962 and 1968 Richter became concerned with a pursuing practice centred around photographic source imagery. Working from pre-existing images, in 1962 Richter painted his prominent canvas, Tisch , which he placed first in his catalogue raisonné. This painting began as an accurate reproduction of a Gardella table from Domus magazine; Richter 'was dissatisfied with the result and pasted parts of it over with newspaper...then suddenly it acquired a quality which appealed to me and I felt it should be left that way, without knowing why' (Gerhard Richter quoted in Gerhard Richter Text. Writings, Interviews and Letters 1961–2007 ,