Mao

Price Realised EUR 3,024

Estimate

EUR 3,000 - EUR 5,000

Loading details

Try our

GERHARD RICHTER (B. 1932)

Mao

Price Realised EUR 3,024

Details Lot Essay Related Articles More from

GERHARD RICHTER (B. 1932)
Mao
collotype in black and purple on lightweight card
84 x 59.5cm.
Executed in 1968, this work is from the edition of 478 (approximately ten of which were signed) besides an edition of 22 numbered copies, four unstamped copies and two trail proofs, published by Galerie h, Hanover.

Galerie h, Hannover.
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 1968.

H. Butin, Gerhard Richter Editionen 1965-1993, Bremen 1993, no. 10 (illustrated, p. 68).

Conditions of Sale
FAQs
This lot is offered by Christie's Amsterdam B.V

Brought to you by

A Christie's specialist may contact you to discuss this lot or to notify you if the condition changes prior to the sale.

Lot Essay

Based on a 1967 newspaper photograph, Richter's haunting image of Mao is one of the defining portraits from the artist's early Capitalist Realism phase. Working primarily from newspaper and magazine photographs, Richter and fellow artist Sigmar Polke converted the imagery destined for popular consumption into ironic criticisms of contemporary German consumer culture. The artist's choice of collotype here lends the image a ghostly quality, whilst also re-enforcing a sensibility for inexpensive 'non art' which could be disseminated to a wide audience.