Image: Lougher Contemporary, Bristol
Lougher is presenting Gerhard Richter’s ‘Vermalung (Grau),’ 1971, described as an exceptionally unusual work from the artist’s early exploration of abstraction and monochrome painting. The work is identified as ‘Vermalung (Grau) (Butin 37),’ made in 1971 using oil finger-painted on synthetic paper.
Although it belongs to a structured group of 150 works, each sheet was individually painted by Richter, with grey oil paint applied directly by hand to synthetic paper. The movement of Richter’s finger through the wet oil paint created a different configuration of marks in each example. As a result, no two works in the group are identical, while the individual sheets remain part of the larger structured group.
‘Vermalung (Grau)’ brings repetition and individuality into the same work: the edition becomes a framework within which chance, gesture and authorship can operate. The work dates from an important period when Richter was deeply engaged with grey as a subject in itself. By stripping away colour and recognisable imagery, Richter directs attention towards surface, movement and the physical act of painting.
In ‘Vermalung (Grau),’ the grey field becomes less a neutral background than a record of the artist’s hand, with every movement preserved in the surface. That treatment makes the work particularly interesting when considered alongside the more fully developed abstract paintings that would become an important part of Richter’s later career.
