polke/richter richter/polke polke/richter richter/polke Essays by Robert Brown Faith Chisholm Dietmar Elger Jill Lloyd Axel Hinrich Murken and Crista Murken-Altrogge Kenny Schachter contents Published in Great Britain 7 Foreword by Christie’s International Francis Outred Media Division Jubilee House, 213 Oxford Street 13 Bed, Bath & Beyond London, W1D 2LG Kenny Schachter This catalogue was published on the occasion 17 galerie h of the exhibition Dietmar Elger polke/richter richter/polke Curated by 29 galerie h 1966 polke/richter Darren Leak and catalogue text Kenny Schachter Sigmar Polke and Gerhard Richter Christie’s Mayfair, London 103 New Bond Street 59 Reflections on Gerhard Richter’s London, W1S 1ST Paintings of Human Subjects 25th April – 7th July 2014 Axel Hinrich Murken and Enquiries: Crista Murken-Altrogge Darren Leak [email protected] T +44 ( 0) 207 389 2025 71 Richter/Polke: Nihilism and Alchemy Jacob Uecker [email protected] Faith Chisholm T +44 ( 0) 207 389 2400 Design by 99 Gerhard Richter: Micha Weidmann Studio Photorealist and Abstract Painting Christie’s photography by Jill Lloyd Steve Ward Cover: Sigmar Polke 135 ‘Kunst Macht Frei’– and Gerhard Richter at The Art of Sigmar Polke galerie h, Hanover, 1966 Robert Brown Courtesy Gerhard Richter Archive © Gerhard Richter, 2014 167 Exhibited Works 7 foreword/francis outred ‘We cannot depend on good paintings being However these artists chose this moment to begin made one day: we need to take the matter into a complete and utter deconstruction of painting, our own hands! to strip it back to its bare bones and rebuild what If someone wants to become a painter, he could be conceived as the ‘possibilities in painting’. needs to consider first whether he wouldn’t From this moment on, both embarked on painterly be better suited to some other activity: teacher, projects which not only completely revived the idea minister, professor, manual worker, assembly of painting in the post-modern period but injected line, because only truly great people can paint!’ energy, surprise, enjoyment and intellect into the agenda – painting became exciting again. They took ( Sigmar Polke and Gerhard Richter, catalogue text all pre-existing styles in painting and threw them into for polke/richter, 1966 ) the mixer, creating magical works which have become more and more influential to the point where it is hard The names Polke and Richter, like Picasso and to think of any painter emerging today who cannot Matisse or Freud and Bacon, are so regularly linked count one of them as a direct influence. Although their throughout art folklore that it is incredible to think friendship waned towards the end of the 1960s, their that they have not had a two-man show since their art would continue to respond to each other’s over 1966 exhibition at galerie h in Hanover. Unlike these the next 50 years until Polke’s sad passing in 2010. other celebrated pairs, Richter and Polke were the For me, the ‘annus mirabilis’ for these artists best of friends from the start, forming an instant was between 1994 and 1995, the year of Richter’s bond when they met in Karl Otto Götz’s class at landmark retrospective in Bonn and Polke’s the Düsseldorf Kunstakademie in 1962. They were retrospective at Tate Liverpool. As an art student at born within seven years of each other (1934 and the time, I travelled to see both of these revelatory 1941 respectively ) in East Germany as the Nazi shows: to encounter two such rich evocations of regime overtook first Germany and then waged these artists’ work in a single year was inspirational war in Europe. Polke fled to the West and settled and opened my eyes and mind to myriad new ideas in Düsseldorf in 1953, while Richter did the same about the power of painting. Although both artists in 1961. Growing up in a time of extreme social and started from similar foundations of thought, the cultural disruption, when daily reality was filled with pursuits of their projects could not have been more horror, and developing as artists in a period when different. Along the way a few similarities arise in this reality was being rejected in favour of total terms of the imagery used: their pursuit of black- abstraction in the 1950s, the pair came together at and-white in the 1960s for example, whether it be a kind of Ground Zero in post-war art history. At this in the Rasterbilder of Polke or the photo-paintings point, the movements of pure abstraction in America of Richter, or their gradual merging of figuration and Europe had virtually run their respective courses and abstraction in the 1980s. It is, however, their and the obituaries for painting were being written. divergent approach to a similar philosophy over a 8 9 fifty year period that makes the prospect of bringing exhibition was Richter’s painting of Sigmar Polke’s them together for this rare exhibition so special. family with him as a child Mann mit zwei Kindern Richter has been the meticulous architect of his own made from a photograph given to him by Polke. career, remaining in virtually the same environment The catalogue for our exhibition has been conceived in Cologne over the entire period, categorising each as an homage to this original artist’s book, which painting and painstakingly cataloguing every work was smaller in proportions. We have also sourced he makes in his exhaustive catalogue raisonné. two paintings from the original exhibition, Flämische Polke, on the other hand, pursued a purposefully Krone by Richter and Bavarian by Polke. We would anarchic approach to picture-making, travelling all particularly like to thank the anonymous lenders over the world, getting lost in the 1970s in São Paulo, of these two works, alongside the many other Afghanistan and Pakistan, using a wide variety anonymous lenders to this exhibition who have of media alongside paint, such as photography, helped to make it so comprehensive. sculpture and film-making. He has also experimented Taking these two works from the 1966 exhibition with multifarious materials in his work, from the as a starting point, this show charts an almost fabrics on which he paints, to the use of a variety chronological path for both artists over the past five of chemicals and even uranium as he has pursued decades. It aims to present juxtapositions between an alchemist’s approach to the investigation of the Richter and Polke that we hope will stimulate thought nature of paint. Like a chess player, Richter has on how these two artists continuously reinvented always thought six moves ahead of his next painting painting, incorporating new techniques and media as he mapped out his course, while Polke has into the art form and – most importantly – using pursued his own impulsive and maverick course it as a medium for exploring their philosophical peppered with moments of genius. ideas about the role of painting in the post-modern The photograph from 1965 of the Richter and period. Aside from the astounding selection of early Polke families having breakfast together provides work, where we see Richter’s black and white blur an insight into their relationship at the time, both cast against Polke’s dots, I am particularly looking dressed in a similar suit and tie. Polke already had forward to seeing the installation of the room of two children and above the table are two paintings Richter’s 1980s landscapes and bringing together by Richter and one by Polke. The tongue-in- a group of Polke’s Laterna Magica from the same cheek nature of Polke’s Wurst painting contrasts period. Richter’s landscapes present the mundane directly with the apparent seriousness of Onkel nature of suburban landscape, however his deft Catalogue cover: galerie h, Hanover, 1966 Rudi, Richter’s painting which would go on to be handling of the photo-real approach and subtle shift Courtesy Gerhard Richter Archive included in the 1966 polke/richter exhibition, and of light and tone elevate these views to a magical Sigmar Polke and Gerhard Richter, © Gerhard Richter, 2014 was the only one of Richter’s paintings included state of almost dream-like being. On the other hand, at Gerhard Richter’s house, 1965 © The Estate of Sigmar Polke, Cologne, in their collaborative artist’s book that served as Polke’s Laterna Magica, executed on clear resin that Courtesy Gerhard Richter Archive DACS 2014. the catalogue for the show. Also included in the makes them double sided, create a kind of child- © Gerhard Richter, 2014 10 11 like wonder. Endlessly mysterious, his attempt to creation of the original artist’s book from the 1966 compose multiple layers of imagery through a thin exhibition. We would also like to, of course, thank transparent veil invites us to dream in a different way. Gerhard Richter for his inspiring artistic vision but We are fortunate that this exhibition has benefitted also for invaluable assistance in the catalogue with from the collaboration of so many talented individuals. Konstanze Ell from the Atelier Richter. Of course, it is I would like to thank Kenny Schachter, the co-curator extremely sad that Sigmar Polke is no longer with us, of this show with Christie’s Darren Leak, for bringing but hopefully his spirit lives strongly in this show and this project to our attention and for his unwavering it offers an interesting counterpoint to his concurrent enthusiasm and commitment, as can be seen in his retrospective exhibition at Museum of Modern Art in engaging introduction to this catalogue. He has New York. We would like to thank Michael Trier and brought an American viewpoint to this show, his colleagues at the Estate of Sigmar Polke for their reminding us of connections to Robert Rauschenberg assistance with the catalogue and shining a new light and Jasper Johns in his text and providing a different on various works in the show.