Gerhard Richter: Colour Charts is an exhibition of paintings selected from the artist’s original nineteen Colour Charts produced in 1966. Presented with the support of the Gerhard Richter Archive, this is the first exhibition to feature a small but vital group of works from this series since their inaugural appearance at Galerie Friedrich & Dahlem, Munich in 1966. The exhibition will also include a group of Colour Charts painted in 1971, when Richter reexamined and expanded the series after a five-year hiatus. At once paradoxical and coalescent, the Colour Charts highlight an important moment in the artist’s career and are situated across multiple leading art movements of the twentieth century.
Gerhard Richter, Fünfzehn Farben (Fifteen Colours), 1966-1996. Enamel on canvas, 78 3/4 x 51 1/8 inches (200 x 130 cm). © Gerhard Richter, 2015. Photo: Tom Powel Imaging, Inc.
In celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Colour Charts inception, the exhibition brings together works from multiple prominent international institutions including Museum Frieder Burda in Baden-Baden, which is lending Sechs Gelb (Six Yellows), 1966, one of the largest single-panel Colour Charts and one of only six such paintings featured in the 1966 Friedrich & Dahlem exhibition. Gerhard Richter: Colour Charts also features the monumental 180 Farben (180 Colours), 1971, a work generously provided by the Gerhard Richter Archive in Dresden. Comprised of twenty panels, each with a three-by-three grid, this is the first painting Richter produced when he returned to the Colour Charts in 1971.
Gerhard Richter: Colour Charts is accompanied by a comprehensive book featuring newly commissioned essays by Dietmar Elger, Head of the Gerhard Richter Archive, Hubertus Butin, curator and author of several key texts on Richter, and Jaleh Mansoor, Professor at the University of British Columbia, whose research concentrates on modern abstraction and its economic implications. This book is the first publication dedicated to the original Colour Charts.
Gerhard Richter: Colour Charts 13th October 2015 – 16th January 2016 Private view: 12 October, 6-8pm
Dominique Lévy 22 Old Bond Street, London www.dominique-levy.com
