Lot 511 D

The self-portrait, shot with a delayed-action shutter release, “shows the artist full face and again with bare shoulders, this time in his Dusseldorf studio on Fürstenwall. The face appears very close to the camera lens, with a section of one of Richter's 1967 corrugated iron paintings visible in the background. The artist has a serious look, squinting badly, which confers the self-portrait an absurd, bizarre, downright ridiculous comic effect. On the one hand, squinting can be interpreted as an ironic reference to the general limits of perception already mentioned. On the other hand, and above all, it is an ironic take on familiar forms of artistic self-perception and traditional patterns of representation. [...] Instead of glorifying himself as a genius, Richter preferred to appear as a kind of anti-hero who disenchanted and satirised such idealising artist myths." (Hubertus Butin, Unknown Photo Works by Gerhard Richter, in: Stefan Gronert (ed.), ibid., p. 217).