Historical Room 209
Ben Brown Fine Arts is thrilled to be returning to TEFAF New York Spring in Historical Room 209 presenting a focused exhibition of Gerhard Richter’s early paintings. Our presentation places a specific emphasis on the dawn and development of Richter’s ‘inpaintings’ between 1968 - 1973. Beginning with a work of major significance and one which blurs the subject matter into virtual abstraction, Zwei Frauen am Tisch (1968) is one of the first instances where Richter is seen to mix the paint on the surface of the canvas itself.
Richter has always maintained a fascination with the process of painting and Ausschnitt (Grün-Grau), a photorealist detail painting from 1970, is both a precursor and an antipode to his purely abstract 'inpaintings'. Richter’s desire to create a new, autonomous existence for painting led him to a fascination with the optical effects of colour. Inspired by his work on the non-representational Colour Charts and Grey paintings Richter developed a series of Vermalung or ‘inpaintings’. In our presentation at TEFAF New York Spring 2019 we will represent both steps in his development with the monochromatic Graues Bild II (1971) and Vermalung (Braun) (1972). ‘Grey is the epitome of non-statement’, Richter observed, ‘it does not trigger off feelings or associations, it is actually neither visible nor invisible... Like no other colour it is suitable for illustrating ‘nothing’.’ For more information on the works we will be exhibiting at TEFAF New York Spring, please CLICK HERE.
