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Lot Essay
Waldstück (Chile) [Forest-piece (Chile)] was painted in 1969 at the height of Richter's grey-toned painterly exploration of aerial photographs of cities. It is one of four relatively large paintings that take as their subject matter the tropical forest and which mark the beginning of Richter's interest in the romantic landscape - an interest that would soon after culminate in his series of seascapes and cloud paintings.
The title of the painting clearly reflects Richter's intentions. Waldstück, a constructed neologism, refers to a segmented piece and the fact that the partial view of reality presented in this painting is a fictive segment of the collective natural phenomena we call a forest. "Forest-piece" refers directly to our inability to perceive reality and the way in which, through words and names, we construct a model of reality which we then interpret as reality itself. One of the aims of this self-evidently artificial painting is to expose this inaccuracy in our thinking. "I don't mistrust reality of which I know next to nothing. I mistrust our model of reality conveyed to us by our senses, which is imperfect and circumscribed," Richter has said, continuing, "Our eyes have evolved for survival purposes. The fact that they can also see the stars is pure accident." (G. Richter in an interview with Rolf Schön, 1972, reprinted in: H.-U. Obrist (ed.), Gerhard Richter. The Daily Practice of Painting, London 1995, p.73.)
In this last part of his statement, Richter displays his opposition to all romantic sentiment and his intention to maintain a sober objectivity through his art even when it deals with traditionally romantic subjects such as forests or seascapes. This seemingly paradoxical feature of his art - which has been termed his 'unromantic romanticism' - relates strongly to his portraits of the forest as a slice or model of reality. As if to emphasise the artificiality of what he is doing - framing a section of the forest and copying its visual patterns onto canvas - Richter has deliberately painted a blurred image. Reflecting the artificiality of the photographic image - the painting becomes a conceptual exercise in painting that exposes and questions our perception of nature, our romantic ideology and the way in which we see the world.
The title of the painting clearly reflects Richter's intentions. Waldstück, a constructed neologism, refers to a segmented piece and the fact that the partial view of reality presented in this painting is a fictive segment of the collective natural phenomena we call a forest. "Forest-piece" refers directly to our inability to perceive reality and the way in which, through words and names, we construct a model of reality which we then interpret as reality itself. One of the aims of this self-evidently artificial painting is to expose this inaccuracy in our thinking. "I don't mistrust reality of which I know next to nothing. I mistrust our model of reality conveyed to us by our senses, which is imperfect and circumscribed," Richter has said, continuing, "Our eyes have evolved for survival purposes. The fact that they can also see the stars is pure accident." (G. Richter in an interview with Rolf Schön, 1972, reprinted in: H.-U. Obrist (ed.), Gerhard Richter. The Daily Practice of Painting, London 1995, p.73.)
In this last part of his statement, Richter displays his opposition to all romantic sentiment and his intention to maintain a sober objectivity through his art even when it deals with traditionally romantic subjects such as forests or seascapes. This seemingly paradoxical feature of his art - which has been termed his 'unromantic romanticism' - relates strongly to his portraits of the forest as a slice or model of reality. As if to emphasise the artificiality of what he is doing - framing a section of the forest and copying its visual patterns onto canvas - Richter has deliberately painted a blurred image. Reflecting the artificiality of the photographic image - the painting becomes a conceptual exercise in painting that exposes and questions our perception of nature, our romantic ideology and the way in which we see the world.