Kanarische Landschaften I [Canary Landscapes I (Butin 39)]
Year: 1971
Medium: Heliogravure (the complete set of 6 works with original case)
Dimensions: image: 11.8 × 22.7 cm (4 5/8 × 8 7/8 in.) - 15.3 x 24.4 cm (6 x 9 5/8 in.) sheet: 39.5 x 50.1 cm (15 1/2 x 19 3/4 in.) each
Edition: No.29 of 100
Acquired from SBI Art Auction, 2022
Considered by many to be the greatest living artist, Richter is an unquestionable megastar of contemporary art not only in Germany, but in the whole world. Richter works with various materials in his two-dimensional works including photographs, paintings, glass, and mirrors. This work is one of several series based on photographs taken on the Canary Islands in 1969, with a beautiful continuity of a set of six pictures. Richter’s paintings can be broadly divided into “Abstract” and “Photo Painting”. He has produced a large number of artworks of landscape depictions classified as “Landscapes” in the “Photo Painting” series since the beginning, and there are also several pieces with the Canary Islands theme like this piece. The reason why Richter’s photo-like paintings look so much like photographs can be clearly understood when comparing his paintings to photographs. This is because in “Photo Painting” he shows how “photo-like” of a photograph can be created with painting techniques. This work is a very important work for understanding Richter’s concept, which can be said to be the foundation of his work.