Although a century apart, Claude Monet and Gerhard Richter each redefined painting and the art world in their respective eras. Monet, rejected by the conservative Académie des Beaux-Arts in the 1860s, founded the Impressionist movement by expressing his perceptions of nature as truly and immediately as possible. Light, colour and shape took centre stage rather than the figurative form. Richter, working since the 1960s, has pursued arguably the most profound modern-day inquiry into nature and the purpose of painting in the post-war era. As he creates in reaction to genres as diverse as Pop Art, photography and landscapes, Richter’s abstract masterpieces bridge the gap between colourist and conceptualist and similarly break the paradigm of tradition.

Christie’s anticipated online exhibition Monet ǀ Richter addresses the implicit dialogue between these two prominent art visionaries and showcases the special collaboration between the Impressionist and Modern Art and Post-War and Contemporary Art departments. Preview the evolving viewing room whose carefully curated pairings pose a fundamental challenge to the distinction between abstraction and representation.