Imagine owning one of the 1970 Clouds triptychs that Richter decides to make fifteen more of. Do you get one? In Paris? From David Zwirner?
Richter’s expansive body of editioned works has consistently allowed the artist to experiment with the production of visual facsimiles and the iterative translation and interplay of mediums.
…
These editions are monumental objects in their own right: chromogenic prints face-mounted to an acrylic surface and on aluminum panels, each created on the same scale as the painted triptychs. To make these works, Richter photographed the original oil paintings and altered the colors of the resulting image—thus investigating the existence of a subjective visual reality that somehow exceeds the bounds of real-world perception. Through this process of recursive image transformation across mediums and domains both analog and digital, Richter approaches a new kind of abstraction that radically collapses the distinctions between painting, photography, and the printed image.
I am an unwavering admirer of Richter’s investigations of the photo copy. But I am pretty sure that this process of recursive image transformation radically enhances, not collapses, the distinctions between painting, photography, and the printed image. And if I had one of those Wolken triptychs I would definitely get a matching full-scale edition to prove it.
Exceptional Works: Gerhard Richter, Wolken (Clouds), 2025 [davidzwirner]
Wolken (rosa), CR 267, 1970 [gerhard-richter.com]
Wolken (blau), CR 268, 1970 [gerhard-richter.com]
Previously, related (2014): Cage Grid: Gerhard Richter and The Photo Copy