Lot Essay
Gerhard Richter is known for his broad range of painterly styles that challenge the nature of painting itself. Äpfels belongs to a series of figurative works painted throughout the eighties. Like the candle and skull motifs, Äpfels alludes to Nineteenth Century Romantic still-life painting. 'The Romantics taught us that the past and the sense of being lost are among the most sublime of nostalgic motifs, and the art of the past will awaken our longing for times gone by. Richter accepts the modern nostalgia because in flight from reality it is not so much an acknowledgement of the loss we have suffered as the attempt at least apparently to overcome this. For him, nostalgia is quite generally the most trivial denominator for the indispensibility of art that is incidentally made a subject in a romantic way in the landscapes' (J. Harten, Gerhard Richter, Cologne 1986, p. 47).
In 1988, Äpfels was exhibited with Richter's abstract paintings in Munich. Working in two distinct and separate styles, Richter established a discourse between painterly abstraction and a romanticized realism taken from photographic sources. Richter is not commited to one style, but rather moves between the two genres showing his commitment to the privacy of conception over style; abstract or realist, each is an equally valid form for painting to philosophically examine the "meaning of meaning" in the late 20th Century.
In 1988, Äpfels was exhibited with Richter's abstract paintings in Munich. Working in two distinct and separate styles, Richter established a discourse between painterly abstraction and a romanticized realism taken from photographic sources. Richter is not commited to one style, but rather moves between the two genres showing his commitment to the privacy of conception over style; abstract or realist, each is an equally valid form for painting to philosophically examine the "meaning of meaning" in the late 20th Century.