Gerhard Richter (b. 1932)

Gerhard Richter (b. 1932)
Haggadah (P2)
numbered '401/500' (on the reverse), unsigned
Diasec mounted chromogenic print on aluminium
39⅜ x 39⅜in. (100 x 100cm.)
Executed in 2014, this facsimile object is number four hundred and one from an edition of five hundred

Provenance:
Fondation Beyeler, Riehen.
Acquired from the above by the present owner.

λ Please see our Conditions of Sale for definitions of cataloguing symbols.

Specialist Notes:

The work presented here is based on Gerhard Richter’s 2006 painting Haggadah, the title of which refers to the text that sets forth the instructions for Jewish Passover.

Richter’s title Haggadah is full of ambiguity and mystery, encouraging the viewer to read between the lines of the various intricate layers that oscillate between three-dimensionality, abstraction and figuration. Describing the interrelation between the motif and its depiction, Richter wrote: ‘”What” is the hardest thing, because it is the essence; “How” is frivolous, but legitimate. Apply the “How” and, thus, use the requirements of technique, the material and physical possibilities, in order to realize the intention. The intention [is] to invent nothing – no idea, no composition, no object, no form – and to receive everything: composition, object, form, idea, picture’ (G. Richter, quoted in U. Wilmes, ‘Gerhard Richter: One Moment in Time’, in Gerhard Richter Large Abstractions, exh. cat., Museum Ludwig, Germany, 2009, pp. 135-136).

Part of a collaboration between Richter and Heni Productions to produce limited edition prints, the work forms part of series of eleven editions numbered P1 to P11, supervised and approved by the artist and which were co-published with museums and institutions.

This work is featured in our How to Collect like a Tate Curator article – find out more here.

Please note this lot is the property of a consumer. See H1 of the Conditions of Sale.