Richter’s Tisch is Gardella’s Tavolo

gerhard richter's tisch/table, a black white and grey 1962 painting of a photo of a white topped modernist table with a black metal base in a featureless interior, with the center of the image and thus most of the center of the table, artfully smeared by wiping the painting with solvent in large circular strokes, richter's breakthrough painting. — Gerhard Richter, Tisch/Table [CR-1] 1962, oil on canvas, 90 x 113 cm, a painting published and reproduced for decades on which David Zwirner asserts a 2023 copyright on the artist’s behalf

In 1991, Richter told Tate curator Sean Rainbird that the source image of Tisch (Table), 1962, which the artist situated as the starting point of his project, came from Domus. “I began to paint it, but I was not satisfied with the result, so I erased it with newsprint.”

“Image of the extendable table designed by Ignazio Gardella, published in Domus issue no. 321.” via domusweb

To celebrate Richter’s 94th birthday, Domus credited itself for launching his career with a single page: a feature from Domus No. 321, in Summer 1956, on an extendable table designed by Ignazio Gardella. “While there is no direct confirmation, the editorial team suggests that this image may have been the original source.” Here, Domus, can I Google that for you?

a side by side comparison of a 1956 page from domus magazine with three black and white photos of a modernist extendable steel table, the two lower images show the underside base and supports, and the top image is a symmetrical side view from above where the plane of the tabletop forms a neat rhombus. this is the image gerhard richter ended up using as the source photo for his painting, table, and the right side here is a collage of the magazine clippings, rubbed out and ink smeared by solvent but still discernible, tests of the solvent process richter would use on the painting too. via peter freeman inc — Domus No. 321 (Summer 1956) spread on Gardella’s T4 Tavolo, and *Maquette for Tisch*, 1962, 40 x 30 cm, magazine clippings, solvent, tape on paper, private collection, Frankfurt, via Peter Freeman, Inc.

In the depths of the COVID Online Viewing Room era, the Research Department at Peter Freeman organized Press Images: a three artist show of solvent-based picturemaking by Robert Rauschenberg, Gerhard Richter, and Lucy Skaer. It included a 1962 “maquette” for Tisch, a collage of solvent-smeared Domus clippings that even preserves the Domus page layout.

Freeman showed several other collages of Domus clippings partially erased by solvent, evidence that Richter was experimenting with technique, mass media imagery, and subject matter. Richter’s dissatisfaction with an image is revealed to be, not a reaction, but part of a process.

And it shows an awareness of and engagement with Rauschenberg’s freshest solvent transfer works, which were barely available to see in Germany. [The show tracks the timeline and connections, which—I can’t believe I’m writing this—is not important now. This is just about the table. That said, one key point in Freeman’s show is that unlike Rauschenberg and Konrad Leug, Richter doesn’t use solvent for image transfer, but for its own markmaking potential, at once dissolutive and generative. I’ll also note, since no one else does, that Richter was using old Domus issues, from 1956, in his 1960s studies. He’d eventually switch to more current, mass media sources.]

Anyway, here is a Gardella T4 table, first designed in 1956 for Azucena, produced by Simon in 1976, and sold in 2022. I have no idea of Richter trueheads out there are propping up the T4 Tavolo market, but I kind of doubt it; it feels like it works better as an image than as an actual table.

🤡: Gerhard Richter’s career began with a single page from Domus [domusweb]
Press Images: Robert Rauschenberg, Gerhard Richter, Lucy Skaer [peterfreemaninc]