Year: 1989
Medium: gelatin silver print, unique
Dimensions: 67.9 x 97.8 cm (26 3/4 x 38 1/2 in.)
Acquired from Phillips, 2022
A photographic work as a unique piece by Richter is exceptionally rare. This is because Richter is the most sensitive artist who captures the relationship between photography and painting. There are several reproductions of his works, and one famous photo painting, “Ema (Nude on a Staircase)” (produced in 1966), was also presented as a work captured in a photograph. This work is likely one of the reproduction works of his abstract painting series. Richter's photo paintings take up elements like blue and defocus, which make the most “photograph-like” expression in a photo, and faithfully reproduce them in paintings. In other words, the unrealistic blurry expression that is likely seen as a failure in photography is what people perceive as “photographic”. It is widely recognized as a phenomenon that frequently occurs in photography. Richter reimports the new image of this “photographic-ness” into pictorial expression. The oscillation of this imagery, returning it to photography, is arguably the inevitability of Richter's photographic works.
