拍品專文
This work is recorded in the Gerhard Richter archive under the title Probe zu 208-2.
The present painting relates to a series of works executed in 1968, which Richter categorises amongst his photo-realist images, but calls his Constructions. Looking as if they were painted from photographs, but consciously not, they depict architectural elements such as doors, walls, beams and curtains.
This work shows a solid beam-like structure, casting a shadow behind it. Jürgen Harten writes of a similar picture depicting a window: "The shadow of the frame, thrown by an imaginary source of light on to a wall that should be imagined just behind the apparent object, has the effect of an after image. The frame does not allow us to look through it as much as make us believe we are seeing double, while the "after image" of the front reflects the outside as if the rear of the window were reflected in its shade... The theme of shadow itself, which is played out in a number of variations, is previsaged in a number of older pictures, like Secretary (No. 14) and particularly Kitchen Chair (No. 97)." (Jürgen Harten, Gerhard Richter, Cologne 1986, p. 32).
Although this picture has a completeness in itself, Richter repeated the image as part of a five panel work entitled Beams in 1968. A preparatory drawing (see illustration) suggests that Richter viewed the larger painting as an illusionistic trick or trompe l'oeil, giving the impression that the wall on which it hung was transparent.
The present painting relates to a series of works executed in 1968, which Richter categorises amongst his photo-realist images, but calls his Constructions. Looking as if they were painted from photographs, but consciously not, they depict architectural elements such as doors, walls, beams and curtains.
This work shows a solid beam-like structure, casting a shadow behind it. Jürgen Harten writes of a similar picture depicting a window: "The shadow of the frame, thrown by an imaginary source of light on to a wall that should be imagined just behind the apparent object, has the effect of an after image. The frame does not allow us to look through it as much as make us believe we are seeing double, while the "after image" of the front reflects the outside as if the rear of the window were reflected in its shade... The theme of shadow itself, which is played out in a number of variations, is previsaged in a number of older pictures, like Secretary (No. 14) and particularly Kitchen Chair (No. 97)." (Jürgen Harten, Gerhard Richter, Cologne 1986, p. 32).
Although this picture has a completeness in itself, Richter repeated the image as part of a five panel work entitled Beams in 1968. A preparatory drawing (see illustration) suggests that Richter viewed the larger painting as an illusionistic trick or trompe l'oeil, giving the impression that the wall on which it hung was transparent.