Seestück I
Seestück I
Signed Print
Gerhard Richter
£8,500-£13,000
$16,000-$25,000 Value Indicator
$16,000-$25,000 Value Indicator
¥80,000-¥120,000 Value Indicator
€10,000-€15,000 Value Indicator
$90,000-$140,000 Value Indicator
¥1,860,000-¥2,840,000 Value Indicator
$11,500-$17,000 Value Indicator
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42 x 40cm, Edition of 150, Lithograph
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Meaning & Analysis
Seestück I is a signed 1969 lithographic print by German artist Gerhard Richter. Issued in a limited edition of 150, it presents an archetypal example of Richter’s photorealistic approach to painting: a so-called ‘photo painting’ of a thalassic landscape scene. It is part of the Atlas series.
Marking a departure from the non-referential exploration of formal artistic concerns seen in works such as Schattenbild I (1968) and Schattenbild II (1968), and Richter’s ‘shadow paintings’ more generally, Seestück I constitutes an important meeting between the acclaimed German artist and another cornerstone of the contemporary: landscape painting. Depicting a cold, grey sea and an horizon line, with this image Richter reminds the viewer that abstraction is as much a product of the natural world as that of technology. Resembling a photograph, this piece is stunning in its granular detail, and a foremost example of the artist’s ‘blur’ technique.
The work’s indeterminacy constantly refers us to photographic technologies; yet the minutiae of Richter’s brushstrokes, barely visible yet hauntingly palpable, evoke not only a desire to record life as it is, but to create a unique, singular image that could only be produced by the human hand. Commenting on his ‘blur’ technique, Richter once said: ‘I blur things so that they do not look artistic or craftsmanlike but technological, smooth and perfect. I blur things to make all the parts a closer fit. Perhaps I also blur out the excess of unimportant information.’
